


A Fated Meeting

by SilentPrincess17



Series: For You [1]
Category: Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Angst, Awkward Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family Issues, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Humour, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, Lots of spirit tracks elements because that was my first Zelda game, Minor Original Character(s), My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Takes place 10000 years ago- with the original calamity, Talking Link (Legend of Zelda), Teenage Dorks, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Various appearances from BOTW NPCs, Zelda (Legend of Zelda) Needs A Hug, or at least I try, zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:53:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 62,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26510962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentPrincess17/pseuds/SilentPrincess17
Summary: This is the first part of a series in the world of BOTW from 10,000 years ago. It details the first meeting between Link, a Knight of Hyrule, and Zelda, the Princess.It starts from Link's Exam to become a Knight and then things go wrong slightly. Each chapter alternates between Link and Zelda's POV.The only thing Link hadn’t accounted for in his grand scheme, was the Princess herself. And she spotted him lazing outside on her Balcony because he had pushed his luck too far this time. For a brief two seconds, although it felt longer, they had made eye contact, and she had smiled. And then ducked back into her study.Link froze. Her eyes were a striking, sparkling jade.She had smiled at him!
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: For You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160528
Comments: 42
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

Link’s POV

Hyrule Castle, Soldier’s Corridors. Tuesday 9:00 am

Today was Link’s final part of the third trial in his Knight Qualification Practical Exam. He still had two hours to spare until the event, and he was feeling nervous. When Link felt anxious, or panicky, he typically did two things- the first was cook a solid meal, that never failed to soothe any fear and the second was to practise swordplay. He had held a sword from the age of 4- having picked up his father’s “spare” during one of his home visits to Hateno and swooshed it around like a toy. His mother had been mortified he would hurt himself; his father had chuckled and had given him his first lesson in swordplay. And since then, the action of thrusts, guards, parries became routine and worked as a form of meditation. It had been 12 years since Link had first picked up a sword, and now he was the youngest knight-in-training. Seeing as he was closer to the Garrison, Link headed off to collect an average Soldier’s Broadsword and as he began his warm-up regimen, his thoughts wandered. 

The trials he had gone through were created to test strength, fighting ability and stealth- as The Commander stated, “the three most important activities of a knight”. 

Trial 1, now 5 weeks ago, had tested strength in two different ways- physical and mental. For the physical part of the test, Link had had to climb up the Necluda Peak, without any amour and only a water skin. The whole thing had seemed deceptively easy, Link loved climbing anything, he had given his mother plenty of aneurysms from his climbing addiction which began when he climbed on top of the bookcase only a few weeks after learning to walk. What he hadn’t accounted for was rain- well that was a lie, he had guessed it might have rained, if often did, but it had rained for 3 hours straight on the test day. Yes, he had remained immobile, for fear of slipping, for 3 hours. Once he had reached the top, he paraglided down, and was immediately put in chains and sent to the Lockup. That’s when the mental part of the test began, and Link preferred not to dwell on the events. He couldn’t remember much anyway, it seemed like a blacked-out hole in his memory. All he had that signified he had even gone through the whole ordeal, was a small scar down the middle of both his palms. He was certain he had never had any symmetrical scars so those could only have come from the interrogation. 

Trial 2 had been a really good destressing exercise in terms of the swordplay he had employed to systematically destroy the enemies. The Sheikah had very recently created- (or was it discovered?) some sort of other-worldly plane. It was nicknamed the Arena because only the knights and royal guards could access it and even then, they could only go into one large “room”. It was hard to describe and Link didn’t have enough time to dawdle and stare- the monsters flew fast and hard at you and even though the whole thing was a simulation, (or well Link assumed it was because how could they move all of those beasts down there?), the pain and wounds you experienced whilst there were very real. That was what confused Link the most- it wasn’t the “real” world, but it still hurt? The walls and floor were all made of the same frustratingly non-climbable material (it was worth a shot) that Kakariko Village was built out of, and the sky/roof was artificially illuminated with a blue tinge, even though at floor level the light seemed the same as the world outside. All the around the upper part of the Arena was a glittering circular barrier and behind that stood the commander and several other knights. They patrolled around as Link moved through his paces, almost like the fighting was a spectacle. Time seemed to pass differently in the Arena- Link had gone down at dawn to face his trial, had seemingly been down there for a couple of hours, and he would have guessed it was maybe midday when he exited, but it had been close to sunset. He had spent a whole 12 hours in there, and it had seemed like 3. Then again, Link did enter a sort of meditative phase when fighting and that also seemed to alter the flow of time. Of all the things the Sheikah had created, Link found the Arena the most exciting, mainly because of the potential. You could even transport down all of Hyrule’s population if there was ever a disaster- but Hyrule wasn’t at war, mostly, and was at its most prosperous in its long history. 

Trial 3 of the Knight Qualification Practical Exam had been the longest- a 3-part stealth test- which tested the knights own stealth, to conduct a covert mission and finally to capture a fugitive.

The first part of the trial, Link had undertaken 3 weeks ago now, had involved sneaking around the castle guards and reaching the Princess’s Balcony that connected her room to her study. Most knights would extensively plan, surveil and memorise when the guards changed rota which was constantly changed so if you knew the time for one shift change that didn’t mean that was the time for the shift change the next day. All that seemed like excessive studying for Link, and he instead decided to think through it. 

The last couple of days Link had been out on the Great Plateau with a squadron of squires sent out to clean the monster camps that had begun to encroach there and were disturbing the pilgrims. He had been assigned a particularly weird skull-shaped camp just west to the Temple of Time, and he had collected all sorts of monster parts no one else had wanted to touch. Of course, there was a protocol for such things- the waste had to be accounted for and would be used to make elixirs of sorts for the guards, knights and royal guards to use. Link wasn’t dishonest by any means, nor was he a thief, but if he took out a couple of monsters on the side and then forgot to list it? 

Link had also asked for a specific time to take his stealth test- he wanted to place it the day after his kitchen duty. No one batted an eyelid, it wasn’t an unusual request, “The boy is allowed to take the test when he wants, when he feels prepared” was The Commander’s opinion. And so, Link had seized the opportunity. 

He had already ground up the kesse wings so that it resembled a fine black dust- it could be mistaken for pepper, some moblin guts which he had already partially roasted beforehand so it had taken a sort of reddish-blue tinge and would pass off as normal (if slightly diseased) animal liver, and bokoblin horns which he had again crushed and looked like flour. He had mixed the three together, and then systematically added portions of it from his sealed packet every time he “broomed” by the Chef’s cooking pot, and then scammed back to his real cleaning duties. It meant that every single meal produced had some form of his specialised one-time-use-only monster spice. None of the guards would dare say the food was dubious, that would bring into doubt their stamina and gut strength and everyone feared the chef’s soup ladle which notoriously could rain down soup as well as a painful headache on anyone who dared criticize the food. No, the guards didn’t want any more pain, there was nothing to be done except to bear it out. The next day, whilst all the guards were indisposed with their sick stomachs and not focussed on their jobs at all, Link had just casually walked across in the shady areas, climbed his way to the balcony and then stuck his legs out, elbows on his thighs and face in his palms. 

The only thing Link hadn’t accounted for in his grand scheme, was the Princess herself. Which was a really dumb move. Way to go Link. And she spotted him lazing outside on her Balcony because he had pushed his luck too far this time. For a brief two seconds, although it felt longer, they had made eye contact, and then she had smiled, and prompty ducked back into her study. Link froze. _Her eyes were a striking, sparkling jade_. Would she tell on him? _She had smiled at him. The Princess of Hyrule had smiled AT HIM_. Wait did the Princess know about these exams? _Had he brushed his hair this morning_? Had he been the only knight to get caught by the Princess? _Spirits, he had been sitting like a toddler in the middle of a tantrum, what sort of self-respecting 16-year-old sat down with their chins in their hands?!?!_ Exactly how many knights must have sat here before? _Had she smiled at all of them?_ He felt a small twinge of jealousy. **Wait what?** At that last thought, Link unfroze himself, took a couple of deep breaths and calmed himself down. It had just been a simple smile. _But it had been for him._ IT WAS JUST A SMILE LINK. 

Whilst he had passed that round, when his father found out exactly how he had done it, the lecture and screaming he had received. Whew.  
**HOW COULD YOU GIVE FOOD POISIONING TO AN ENTIRE GUARD SQUADRON LINK?  
WHAT IF SOMEONE ATTACKED THE CASTLE? WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE THEN?  
YOU NOT ONLY ENDANGERED THE SAFETY OF THE ROYAL FAMILY BUT ALSO OF HYRULE’S TREASURY AND…. **  
It had continued for several days but that didn’t matter so much to Link, he had passed, saved himself a lot of hassle with rotas and now everyone possessed a healthy fear of what he could sneakily do. Surely that was the whole point of the test? He had proved himself to be perfectly stealthy when appropriate? (Except the Princess but in all likelihood, he would never see her again, he didn’t anticipate on joining the Royal Guard because he didn’t want to be a Royal Babysitter like his father, _but that smile…_ )

After the first part, he had had a week-long “break” and he had never felt time pass by so fast- he had blinked, and it was over. Maybe because he had spent a bit too long daydreaming, and reimaging and wanting to die of humiliation because he had done his typical thing and had frozen and he hadn’t smiled back and why did that smile bother him so much- ANYWAY.

The morning after that break, in much the same way as he had done for the past 3 years at the Garrison- he trained with his sword and various other weapon types till noon, but recently he had upgraded his Sheikah Slate- he had gotten the stasis rune in addition to his standard magnesis and bomb runes as a knight-in-training and he had been training vigorously with it. The commander had interrupted, with news of part 2, when he had reached doubled-handed swords. Out of all the weapons, Link disliked training with these the most. Not only did using them leave him vulnerable without a shield to deflect off attacks, but it was a pain to lug around and it was even more difficult to feint movements too. This time, he had to get several stone boulders from around the castle grounds- one was in the docks, another under the Princess’s balcony, _stealthily_ , onto the balcony outside the observation room. 

Link was at an impasse- how did one move MASSIVE GREY BOULDERS _stealthily?_ Sprits- they even wanted it outside the observation room- and it doesn’t take a genius to guess what activity goes on in there? That room was always full of astronomists- wait. The observation room was often empty during the day- you couldn’t see stars during daylight hours after all, but the surrounding area was always heavily patrolled because of the extensive expensive machinery inside. What excuse would he give for moving stone boulders _right up to the balcony_? He could paint them maybe- with some magical camouflage paint that changed colour as the object moved through the air? 

Ha. He had lost it. No. 

What were the boulders most often used for? And just like that an idea hit- fireworks. But no one just upped and threw firework boulders into the sky- he needed a rumour. Something to deflect off his own specific stone-boulder-firework-contraptions. Link spent the next week tagging his boulders with a small red X at the bottom and adding his fireworks to each one. He spread the rumour by crafting a very fine scroll, with that thick fancy paper he didn’t have a name for, rolled it over so it looked like an official document, and tied it with red ribbon. The message inside was very simple- it detailed a private ceremony to offer proper thanks to the Goddess Farore - on upcoming Farore’s Blessing Day. The ceremony involved setting off green fireworks attached to stone boulders in her honour. The key part, that Link was keen to stress in the note was that the ritual had to be conducted an hour AFTER DAWN- a metaphor of sorts for how Farore had created all life. He had slipped the note to a passing maid- the Rito messengers were too trustworthy and wouldn’t open the letter- but maids. 

Well.

Soon it had spread to the chambermaids and to their mistresses, the laundry maids, the kitchen maids and after that it had slipped out into the populace. It was a hit, the Castle Town branch of FireworksForU had run out of stock of everything with the slightest tinge of green, and Link was all set for his catapulting adventure. Was that the correct verb? Anyway. That night, Link had rented out a metal cart, used stasis to lock onto his boulders and shift them into the cart, moving them all along the walkway outside the dining room corridor with magnesis. He would be lying if he didn’t admit to loitering around the Princess’s Balcony for a “quick” scan of the perimeter. Nothing wrong in making sure the Heir to Hyrule was safe right? He sat down just under the dining room window, catching whiffs of the delightful aromas that seemed to pervade the walkway, and “swiftly” double-checked his Xs against the many boulders that had sprung up over the week in and around the Castle and Castle town. Once he had all his stones lined up and knew they were secure in his cart, he sat down and watched the stars with the astronomers, until it was an hour before dawn and the whole of Castle Town woke up- everyone scrambled up to “their” boulder, fights broke out as people laid claim, and the poor night-shift guards had a rough time handling it. Link broke out a smile, it was rare to see people so aggravated and passionate _over a boulder,_ because of _his_ rumour. Around 60 minutes after dawn, when most of the astronomer’s had surrendered their work until sunset, Link catapulted off his stone boulders, watching as the faint orange-pink tinged sunrise sky lit up green all over as everyone else joined in- the guards hassled trying to make sure no civilians were caught in the launch. Even if he had completely made it up, it did make for a nice way to celebrate Farore and all she had achieved.

It had only been afterwards that the commander had praised him. All the other knights had simply claimed an “Unknown Stone Missile Launch” rumour or something along those lines with several false catapults in between the real ones. No one had ever gotten the entirely of a town involved before. Eh, there was always a first for everything. 

And now it was _finally_ time for the final test- he would have to capture a fugitive and the commander would send for him to tell him all the necessary details (Link hoped it wasn’t too late, he still wanted to sleep) and hopefully become a knight by the end of the week. It had been a long, gruelling 5 weeks of trials and recalling all those memorable experiences of those weeks had left Link feeling emotionally exhausted. 

He put the sword down, felt the sweat roll down his back, in his hairline, down his arms. He pulled out his slate and checked the time- 12:30 pm. His meeting with the commander was in 30 minutes. Link moved over, stretching out his tensed muscles, and during his upper arm stretch, his eyes cast upwards to the Garrison’s balcony, and he caught sight of a fleeting pair of emerald eyes, and a wisp of blonde hair that had slunk back into the shadows towards the first gatehouse. Shaking his head, Link shuffled across to the nearest Guards Chamber. He really needed a shower, and he needed to stop hallucinating after the Princess. It wasn’t healthy at all and he was starting to frighten himself with how often she was crossing his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zelda finds herself distracted and hopes a research trip will help.

Zelda’s POV  
Hyrule Castle, the Princess’s Study  
Tuesday, 19:00 pm 

Zelda gazed out over her window and opened it a touch wider. She took a deep breath of fresh air and gazed over what was soon to be her country to govern, her Hyrule. Granted, she couldn’t see all of it, only the lush Hyrule fields and admittedly, at the minute there was a lot of construction in the way, but the sentiment was there. She treasured this land and would do her all to protect it. 

At that thought, an all too familiar feeling of something missing hit her- she didn’t know what it was, but it felt as though she wasn’t whole yet. Zelda wasn’t worried though, she was only 15, 5 months and 7 days and there was still much she had to learn. It had only been a month since the fortune teller’s Revelation had come that a beast called Calamity Ganon would rise, in the foreseeable future, and she would play a critical role in the ensuing fight- but she wasn’t sure what, yet. She knew it was her responsibility, however, to protect her kingdom (which Zelda would have done anyway, regardless) against said “calamity”. 

Zelda didn’t approve of the name; calamity meant an event that would cause sudden damage – basically a disaster. And yes, whilst the nature of the beast was one that was prone to causing destruction, it hadn’t yet done so and to give the creature credit before it was due was not something Zelda agreed with. 

Distantly Zelda heard a knock against the door. “Yes?” 

“Your Royal Highness, sorry for the disturbance- I’ve come with your post, the Sheikah leader- Impa and Research Director- Akhirah, sent a note. The office heavily pressed on me that the matter held much importance,” Niko, one of the Rito messengers, huffed out hurriedly with a small smile. He carried a whole bunch of letters which threatened to spill out of his burlap sack that was strapped to his back. In typical Niko fashion, he was already hovering using his Magnesis Wing-Span Gloves and was setting up for his next burst down the metal-lined corridors. 

Akhirah had made a modification to the magnesis rune- instead of only being able to move magnetic objects using the slate, now it could focus on nearby magnetic objects and “link” them to the user if they had a metallic connection of some sort on them. It had led to a whole host of developments like hovering, and as the linking could theoretically happen as you aim-and-move on the go, it could allow very rapid travel. When Zelda suggested a trial experiment with the Rito using their extra wing power, Akhirah had squealed with glee and had immediately sent a request for a Rito Messenger, and poor Niko happened to be on hand. As Zelda had correctly guessed, the linking combined with Rito wing power had equalled to very speedy bursts of movement, that had increased efficiency of the messaging service by around 25%. The Rito had been delighted with the new development and Zelda had been involved in helping to program the upgrade which was sent to all the messenger’s slates across the kingdom. But really, her favourite invention that resulted from the update was the creation of fast-moving magnetic trains. Zelda had only gone on the prototypes and had yet to go on a proper journey since Castle Town Train Station had opened a few months ago back. 

Zelda sometimes pitied Niko, he always seemed rushed, slightly breathless and his gloves seemed especially worn down today. Zelda made a mental note to get him a new pair as a show of her appreciation for how he had always brought any mail for her as soon as it arrived, regardless of the time or how far out of his way it was. 

“Thank you, Niko,” Zelda began to respond –

“And if that’s all, Princess Zelda, I will take my leave, I have an extraordinary amount of messages to deliver today, the annual council meeting with all the extended members will take place on Friday and I must deliver invitations to the train master before he leaves.” Niko bumbled out, tightening his burlap sack’s strap trying to contain the waterfall of letters and took aim with his gloves, magnesis already activated on his slate.

“WAIT NIKO, are you not going to give me the note?”

Niko blushed, well, as much as Rito pride would allow, mumbled out a quick apology, passed over the note and with a quick bow, he left. 

Zelda smiled, shaking her head at Niko’s antics, and sat down at her desk to read the note. It was a sprawling letter of two handwriting styles amalgamated into one letter:

 _Your Royal Highness,_ underneath was a **ZELLIEEEEE**

_I hope this letter finds you well. I apologise once again for leaving your side, but as you know, I had to come supervise my older sister._  
**Don’t worry, I haven’t blown anything up this time. Spirits, Impa, when will you forgive me for the bomb rune malfunction? It was ONE TIME.**

_We would like to request your presence at Akhirah’s New Tech Lab in Hateno tomorrow._  
**Bring your slate, don’t forget it or you will regret it – hey that rhymes!**

Zelda was puzzled- the head of operations for the Sheikah had always been in Kakariko. Why the sudden change? And she couldn’t help the cringe slightly at that rhyme. She knew it would now be stuck in head in revolving loops and every time she’d look at her slate, she’d recite it. 

_We will discuss the role Sheikah technology will play against Calamity Ganon- we though it prudent to get your views before we present them to His Majesty the king, next Friday at the annual meeting._  
**If you want the short version – I want to show off and I apparently need supervision. I thought I was the older sister, but there you go.**

_I would recommend wearing your Sheikah amour Princess. It would make me feel considerably better with regards to your safety as I have personally ensured it is upgraded with regards to stealth._  
**Wear what you want. But, if you want my opinion, nothing beats Sheikah gear, especially for your curves girlllllll. At least me and Impa can agree on that.**

Zelda blushed at that one. Of course, Akhirah wouldn’t every let down an opportunity to tease her. It was true, the Sheikah amour was quite form-fitting, but the cape Zelda would have to wear over the top would remedy that. Probably.

_I look forward to seeing you soon Princess Zelda, I wish you a safe journey.  
Your loyal guardian,  
Impa_

**Hurry up and get here, I need my bestie again.  
** **Akhirah**  
**PS Zels, please don’t tell Impa I annotated her note, it was so bland, and I missed you. So uh, I’d appreciate it if you don’t mention it? And maybe also burn this- for old times’ sake?**

Zelda burst out into laughter at the last sentence. Akhirah was all fun and jokes about pretty much everything, but her secret weakness was her fear of younger sister Impa. Her scribbly handwriting all over Impa’s official letter reminded Zelda of all those notes she and Akhirah would exchange when they were younger, and how at any mention of Impa, Akhirah would clam up like a sunset firefly dimming its light come morning. 

She got out her quill, jotted down a quick note for her father, before pausing. Should she ask for permission in person? It was only a day trip she reasoned, and she would leave slightly before dawn to get away from the Castle as soon as she could, so he wouldn’t even know she was gone. And she didn’t really want to deal with him so late in the evening. 

After justifying it to herself, she finished off the letter, stamping it, and she attached a magnet disc onto the seal, sending it through the pipe that connected her room to the king’s with magnesis. She rifled through her private chest of clothes, things that were not exactly Princess-appropriate went in there instead of her closet, and she pulled out her Sheikah garb for the trip tomorrow. She was excited- Impa had left a month ago and whilst she had been receiving “updates”, this would be her first time visiting the Lab since preparations against Ganon had begun. She hadn’t known about the Lab shift to Hateno though! Just what was going on? 

Zelda felt incredibly research starved- it had been a good few months since her last solo trip- the guards around her had increased since the fortune teller’s revelation and whilst she understood the need for her protection, she just wanted to run wild for a bit. One day wouldn’t make that much of a difference, everyone was busy with preparing for the Annual Meeting so no one would notice her absence. 

She coughed slightly, because although she didn’t want to admit it, a principal part of why she really needed a good tech-heavy distraction, was that she hoped it would help to take her mind off a certain pair of cobalt eyes that resembled the calm waters of Lurelin. Only the Goddesses in all their infinite wisdom knew _how_ he had reached her balcony and _what exactly he had been doing there_. And she hadn’t taken any drastic steps to find out who he was, even though her curiosity had reached peak levels. She didn’t count the extra-long detour she had been doing daily for the past three weeks around the Garrison and surrounding areas, which is where he, most likely a Knight in training would reside, as _investigation_. 

Today, she had, as per her normal routine, simply gone on an innocent trip to the Observation room for an update on the recent increase in monster sightings, and then had taken said long route down the corridor to the Dining Room for a quick baked apple (there had been no fruitcake sadly), and then out up the stairs to the Second Gatehouse, along the upper balcony of the Garrison, to the First Gatehouse and then up the stairs to her room. Yes, that meant she had covered the majority of the bases for the Castle’s forces. No, that didn’t mean she had wanted to ensure she had toured everywhere once to check if he was there. 

It just so happened by _pure chance_ that on her extended trip today, calm-waters was outside training in the open courtyard section of the Garrison. She had still checked the First Gatehouse afterwards to convince herself the entire debacle was for her quotidian exercise. And she had taken a break from said exercise on the Garrison’s Balcony, which offered a prime view of the courtyard. And she may have stuck around for a few minutes. Just a few. “Loitering” is what her father would have called it, but it had _definitely been worth it_. 

Zelda had never felt this way before. She had never blatantly stared at someone exercising. She’d never shied away from physical work, or getting grimy with her research, but she’d never been _attracted_ to sweat. It wasn’t just that though, there had been something about the way the sun had hit him and lit up his straw-coloured hair, the way he had held the sword like a feather and had twirled with it so gracefully, it had felt like watching a theatre piece- a spectacle of sorts. And then he had started to look up and Zelda had fled, like a coward. Even though, technically, her father owned everything, and there was no rule saying she couldn’t walk into the Garrison, she felt slightly guilty for spying- she had no right to be there admiring him, his form, his conviction. 

She shook her head, see, this was exactly why she needed to escape the Castle tomorrow. After a quick cursory glance over the letter once more, Zelda tossed it into the fire and watched it slowly burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Any feedback is appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Link's final stealth assessment goes haywire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note- this chapter directly alternates between Link and Zelda's POV- I hope it makes sense and isn't confusing. I tried splitting them but it didn't have the same effect.

Link’s POV

The top of Hyrule Castle. No seriously- the top spike bit you can hang off.   
Wednesday 3:30 am

Link was dressed in his new favourite Sheikah Amour, new because his father had gifted him the set before his final stealth test and told him to use it well, favourite because it was stretchy and easily accommodated him doing scouting swirls around the spire. He even liked the facemask; it hid his breaths in the colder night air and masked any noise that breathing would normally make. Unfortunately, nothing much had happened thus far. He had actually, discovered one thing. The view of Hyrule from this vantage point was unmatched. All four corners of the land could be seen. The rolling mountains, hills, valleys, the massive Ancient Tree resplendence in spring with its pink blossom, all the curves and dips in the natural architecture flowed into one panoramic vision. He would always remember the sunset, against that backdrop. Meshed in between all the greenery far out, Link could also admire the metropolis of Castle Town, with the larger stone commercial business buildings up front, to the shopping district further east and in the south the large residential area with what looked like small quaint doll houses from this distance. If he squinted, he could maybe make out his own that he shared with his father. 

As with any city, there was always construction, and a permanent faint grey haze seemed to envelope and cushion everything. The unique thing about Castle Town, Link supposed, were the metal links present everywhere. Hidden in small nooks and crannies’, a little metallic glint could be seen. The entire city gleamed – it reflected in the electric bulbs. Every 10 minutes a speed bullet magnetic train pulled (floated?) into the colossal train station in the west of Castle Town. It was the largest station in all of Hyrule and the trains barely stopped for a minute before promptly leaving- going off in a zigzag mire of tracks all across the Kingdom. He hadn’t actually gone to the station, it had been during one of his morning walks to the Castle where a man called Ferrus had been sprouting facts about the trains, but he’d never had the chance to go visit, and today, albeit at a massive height, he’d finally seen it in live action. 

But he’d had to constantly look back towards the Castle, eyes trained hard to see if anything out of the ordinary happened. It had been a really quiet night, all things considered, and all Link wanted, at this point, was to slip into his bedcovers and sleep. If the commander was going to send the “fugitive” guard 10 minutes before sunrise, Link was going to have a hissy fit. 

Wait.

A small spec, a blob – covered in black – moved across the Princess’s Balcony. A warm fuzzy feeling spread inside Link’s stomach. NO. This was not the time to be reminiscing. What was the commander thinking sending the “fugitive” from the Princess’s Room? Did the King know practically half of the Knight Qualification Practical Exam took place surrounding his darling daughter and heir? Link paraglided down to the next spire just above the Balcony, and the fugitive entered the Princess’s Study. That was it. Link needed to take decisive action now.

He jumped down, reached the Balcony and sprinted inside, catching the blob fugitive by surprise, it gave a startled cry (vaguely sounded feminine but it was muffled- maybe the fugitive was wearing a mask like he was?) and whipped his rope out, pushing the cape off the sides of his now-captive and deftly tying knots around the their wrists and ankles, before hauling them up on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. He felt the imprint of a bow strapped to the invader’s back across his arm, but he wasn’t worried- he had already tied them up. Was it just his imagination or was the poor guard roped into playing fugitive a bit soft? Maybe a bit on the light side too? Then again, Link himself wasn’t the epitome of male muscular perfection. He wasn’t expecting rippling muscles, but still. And when did the guards start to use perfume? It smelled of warm safflina and silent princess’s and maybe also coffee? He had expected the captive to at least start joking by now- saying something along the lines of “eh, you can put me down now, son, we both know you got me, hah” in a deep tenor voice and then they’d chuckle their way down to the First Gatehouse where the commander was waiting. As a general rule, Link never spoke unless spoken too. It made life a lot easier if you already knew the direction the conversation was headed in, and he could simplify things for himself because words were fickle and could be misconstrued a million different ways. The silence that pervaded though, was unnerving. What if he had caught a real fugitive? Link hurried down the Balcony, went around the Princess’s room and then down the stairs into the First Gatehouse. 

Zelda’s POV  
The Princess’s Balcony  
Wednesday, 3:40 am

Zelda was feeling many things and it had all clogged up her throat- she needed to scream but she was still winded from being tied up and then lopped onto a hard, firm, shoulder. She was still processing what the hell had just happened in the past 2 minutes- she’d just chugged down her coffee (bitter but necessary to remain awake). Everything had been going so well- she had timed her sprint from her room to her study exactly when the guards changed over – it was at 3:35 am today. She had already gotten inside- with no guard in sight and had been about to reach over for her safety box with the silver key to the secret door behind the tapestry. But then, she’d ended up on someone’s grassy, almost wild smelling, shoulder. Zelda’s mind started to lose focus, which happened at the start of every one of her panic attacks, so to change course from that sure-fire disaster, she started to logically go through the emotions she was feeling. Yes, she was grappling at straws, but she really couldn’t afford to hyperventilate right now. 

Zelda was in shock, understandable, she was being carted to Goddesses know where.   
Zelda was mortified- this was the least dignified position she could think of to be kidnapped in.   
Zelda was also terrified- who was the kidnapper and why did they want her? Well maybe the last question had an obvious answer, there was no man richer than her father and a ransom for her could potentially cost the country. The most important lesson Impa had imparted during her training was that she shouldn’t be scared, and she should carefully assess every situation. Hell, Zelda wasn’t just scared, she was downright petrified, fear and shock had frozen her vocal cords, so she couldn’t even scream, but at least she hadn’t descended into panic attack hell yet. 

She really should have just waited until the morning to leave, and she should have at least told her father in person. He was still finickity with technology and probably was part of the last generation to still not use magnesis on the slate properly. And then maybe he would have assigned one of the Royal Guards as protection and maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t be in this situation. She couldn’t even reach her bow strapped across her back; it had taken mere seconds for the idiot lugging her around to tie her hands. Maybe she should also train in using daggers or something and not just favour her long-range weapon.   
Now, however, was not the time to think of maybes, and she refocussed her attention to the present. It seemed her kidnapper was just as nervous, and he was hurrying down to the Gatehouse. Why would he go to where the soldiers trained? 

That wasn’t very logical for a kidnapping attempt.

What was going on? 

Link’s POV  
The First Gatehouse  
Wednesday, 3:50 am

In Link’s opinion, The Commander always exuded a certain aura that he couldn’t quite pin down. It wasn’t outright menacing per se- Link had never heard The Commander shout, but he didn’t need to. Everything was communicated by his stature and his presence alone demanded respect. Maybe it was the way he could silence any opposition by simply having a staring contest. Link called it “The Brooding Face”. 

The Commander had no name. Or at least, none that Link knew of. 

He was defined by his title, and that only added a good dose of fear to all under his command. Yes- he was a commander and shared the same core values as his soldiers and would stand up for them, but he also took the literal meaning of his name and was a force to be reckoned with. Link, for the first time in The Commander’s presence, felt ill at ease and his stomach plummeted far below his boots, maybe all the way down to the Arena, when he saw the “fugitive” sitting next to the commander. Link felt all his muscles tense, his left arm flexed around the captive, and ready to grab his sword, his back ramrod straight, his legs prepared to run. 

He must have caught a real outlaw. 

Link stood to attention. He wasn’t sure what to do. This wasn’t the way his final night in 5 weeks of examinations was supposed to have gone. Did he place the captive down? Or would the Commander want to interrogate them in private? 

“Boy, you have returned early. With a fugitive, even though I haven’t yet sent him out.”  
Link flushed slightly in response. 

“Guess what, Jacob, you’ve been spared acting duty. Go back to your Guard’s Chamber.” The Commander puffed out, and once the poor sleep-deprived guard had left, he stated “well, set her down boy, and take the hood off. Untie her arms and ankles too. I could guess, but I want to confirm who it is.”

_Her_?! All of a sudden, the softness, the light weight, the perfume all made sense. Link felt like a fool. He gently set the woman down, trying to be respectful now he knew it was a female, and untied the rope bindings. He slowly lifted up the hood. 

Verdant eyes met his own, a few strands of blonde wispy hair obscuring them, the rest of her face hidden by her Sheikah mask, much like his own. 

Link was mortified. 

He had _kidnapped, manhandled, tied up and Goddess’s knew what else to **the Princess**_. 

Blood rushed to his head, he could hear his heartbeat in his eardrums, he could feel his hands go numb, and the sweat start to drip down his back. Link honestly thought he was a second away from fainting. Or violently vomiting. Or both. 

Zelda’s POV  
The First Gatehouse  
Wednesday, 3:51 am

“AHAHA Princess, guess we caught you this time. Yet another nightly escapade?” The Commander boomed, his voice resonating in the empty First Gatehouse. 

Zelda wasn’t sure she could speak still. Technically, her mind was still processing events with a lag time of around 3 minutes. Since calm-waters had uncovered her hood, she’d had another set of emotions to add to her ever-growing list. 

1) Embarrassment – over her appearance. The Commander was a terrifying man, and she’d always appeared before him in an appropriate setting, wearing proper princess-wear. That, and she’d gotten caught. She’d never been caught before and yet he seemed to know about her previous excursions?   
2) Amusement- over the poor “boy”. He looked horrified, ashamed and nauseous all in one go and it was adorable! But it wasn’t like she’d immediately forgiven him or anything. She was still feeling vestiges of fear, but it was overshadowed by relief that she hadn’t actually been kidnapped.   
3) Confusion- why had he tied, manhandled and carted her over here? Why did he think she was a fugitive? She was dressed rather un-princess-y but still. Also- how should she go about this? She didn’t really want The Commander giving a less-than-glowing-report of her escape back to her father. But she also needed to leave soonish to get to Hateno on time. She also didn’t want to be accompanied, it would take forever to get anywhere (“Wait a minute, Princess, we _must_ scout the area beforehand”). On top of all that, The Commander needed pacifying too. 

“Well, it wasn’t as if I was leaving without informing anyone- I did send a letter to my father.”

“Hm. Why the cape, the sneaking, the escape door I assume you were planning to use, in your study? And that’s ignoring the fact that your father would most certainly want you protected, escorted and most importantly, _not kidnapped_.”

Zelda wouldn’t have thought it possible, but calm-waters blanched even more at the last statement. Goddesses he would faint at this rate.   
Dammit. Trying to reason with The Commander was a doomed venture. 

“I assure you, Commander, I did write a letter. My trip was planned rather rapidly- perhaps my father hadn’t read my note in time. I couldn’t wait for him to assign Royal Guards, I had to leave around dawn today to get to Impa on time- she has an important update for me, for the upcoming… um, event. As for my cape, I rarely leave the castle without it, to stop anyone identifying me- surely you know this better than anyone else, Commander. I wasn’t intentionally “sneaking around” as you phrase it. And I didn’t leave unprotected- I had my bow with me. I was just surprised by uh, um…”

“The boy you mean? His name is Link. He’s one of our most promising trainee knights. The fact is Princess, you were sneaking out to avoid escorts. I do understand, you are a teenager and freedom means the world. But surely you, of all people, would appreciate, that with the upcoming event as you so eloquently put it, we need you safe. So, would you be willing to compromise?” 

It wasn’t as if she had a real choice, and if she was being honest with herself, it was probably better to be on the safe side and have a guard. Technically, even though it hurt her pride to admit, Calm-wate no- Link had managed to subdue her in all of 15 seconds. BUT, she wasn’t a useless demure, only-good-for-looks Princess!! She knew she could take care of herself. That being said, she’d have to reprove her worth to The Commander, because he clearly knew of her past escapades and hadn’t stopped her- meaning he accepted she could and would handle herself appropriately. If only calm-no- Link hadn’t surprised her so much! She wouldn’t have been caught and wouldn’t be having to debate this right now. She could have been in the fields already, feeling the wind though her cape. The best and easiest course of action would be to just agree to compromise now, and if she didn’t like it, she could always stage another escape later. Hopefully it would only be 4 Royal Guards instead of the standard squadron of 8 that normally “accompanied” her. 

“I don’t think I have much choice in the matter, Commander, so I’ll agree by default.”  
Zelda saw no need to beat around the bush, she didn’t want to compromise, and she wasn’t doing it willingly. 

“No, you’re right there, Princess, you don’t have a real choice. I won’t ever compromise on your safety, but I feel that you’ll find this agreement more amenable. How would you like to only have one Knight – Link, accompanying you, for your safety?

One knight?! Link? Zelda prayed to the Goddesses she wasn’t blushing. Wait, he did capture you Zelda! He MANDHANDLED you and you are blushing! Like some love-sick teenager. Get a grip. Innocently casting glances at him whilst training is one thing, it’s entirely another to be practically abducted! Who did this boy think he was? And wasn’t the whole point of this trip, well part of the point, to escape him? Sink your teeth into some good research and forget about his eyes? Zelda wasn’t sure what to feel. “Even if I minded, I doubt you will change your mind, Commander.” She couldn’t very well say _“I do mind because I mean, he did throw me over his shoulder like I was a mere 20 kg rice bag, and nearly gave me at least 10 panic attacks, and I wanted to go on this trip to stop thinking about him but also I don’t mind because I… like looking at him and I want to find out more about him?”_. 

The Commander turned his attention to Link. 

Zelda breathed a small sigh of relief. At least The Commander was in a forgiving mood this morning. (And she wasn’t in the line of fire anymore, whew)

“Well boy. Even if you didn’t capture the right fugitive, a fugitive you did capture. Not one of our guards have ever caught the Princess before. Just wait until your father hears of this! Tell you what son, I think it’d be best if you weren’t around the Castle when he finds out.”   
At that, Link visibly paled a shade whiter. Zelda was surprised. How much vasoconstriction could a body undergo? Maybe she should do some experiments. She’d have the upcoming trip to Hateno all alone with Link anyway. “And I need someone to accompany this wayward Princess of ours. Seeming as you’re the only one, in all of our guards, to ever catch her, and she doesn’t mind you going with her, would you mind accompanying her highness, to where she needs to go? Don’t stress about anything else, I think the King would appreciate his daughter being left in the hands of the Knight who has given the best performance in the exam to this date, instead of _all alone_.” The Commander chuckled, sending a pointed look Zelda’s way. Zelda had the decency to at least look ashamed. “Oh, and yes, you pass your training, son. If I didn’t make you a Knight after this, I’d forever regret it.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> EmbarrassedLink! Need I say more?

Link’s POV  
The First Gatehouse  
Wednesday, 4:05 am

There had been many times in Link’s life thus far, where he had felt confused, such as when he had first started to learn to count and then when he had reached algebra, times when he had felt ashamed- such as when he’d had his first fall after a bad climbing venture and his mother had burst into tears, MANY times when he had felt embarrassed mostly because he couldn’t respond appropriately. But Link had never felt as strong a combination of those three as he was right now. 

He felt horrified and ashamed over his treatment of the Princess. Granted, he hadn’t known she was the Princess but still. And he was very confused, because despite all his transgressions with said Princess, The Commander had responded by more or less entrusting her safety to him? _Why?!_ And she didn’t seem all that happy about it, which made sense. Who in their right minds would want to travel with someone who had more or less kidnapped them? And in the midst of all of this- he had been gifted his knighthood. Something positive at least came out of the whole experience. 

At least two minutes of complete pin-drop silence had passed since The Commander’s question. 

There had been another even more awkward interlude where after one minute, he had lifted his forearm towards his neck to rub it- a tick he had since childhood, then realised that it wouldn’t be appropriate to do so in front of Her Royal Highness. And his arm had remained in limbo in the air for another ten seconds before he’d just let it drop. 

To be fair, he had remained in a semi-traumatic state since he had lifted the hood off the Princess’s cape, and he contemplated all he had done to **the Princess of Hyrule**. 

Spirits if her father found out he could have Link _executed_ because he was The King. **And then The Commander had brought up his own father ahahahahaha Link would most certainty not live another day after that revelation.**

There was just too much to process and Link’s mind was revolving in circles. Mostly, he was just really embarrassed. He didn’t think he could ever meet the Princess’s gaze again, and now he was suddenly responsible for her safety?

He’d have to say something soon. He didn’t have a whole day to contemplate the events. Weirdly, all Link really wanted was to go down to the Arena and have a blast with the monsters. Or maybe go back to the Smile Day (seriously Link!), things had been so simple then.

“Link, son, I know you are quiet, but you normally answer questions relatively quickly- are you feeling alright?”

And that was probably a sign that he’d been quiet for much longer than was appropriate. Well at least he had more or less devised a plan. How well he’d be able to voice it was another matter entirely.

Link shuffled, and then cringed (Spirits could he get _even more_ awkward?) and looking towards The Commander, he nodded, “As you wish Commander. Um, thank you for deeming me worthy of being a Knight of Hyrule. And… I will also endeavour to look after the Princess.” Link hoped that was formal enough, he squirmed over his awkward pauses and he felt the Princess’s eyes burn holes into his head, but what else could he do? He awkwardly turned in the general direction the Princess was in, shame fiercely colouring his cheeks as he kept on replaying hauling her across his shoulders, tightening his hold on her- he shook his head. Goddesses above give him strength. “Your Royal Highness, I would like to apologise for my actions.” He paused, shifted again, Farore, he’d never felt so self-conscious in his entire life, “I am sorry for breaking into your study, tying you up…” He flinched, “and then, um, carrying you over here.” Right, that was the hard part, now he could whistle through his explanation and hope that the end of this awful speech was in sight, “I was undertaking my Knight Qualification Practical Exam and the trial was to capture a fugitive. I apologise for mistaking you for said fugitive- that was shameful of me and I have no excuse for that.” He took a deep breath, and risked a quick glance at her, a glimpse over her general expression, which seemed to be at least not hostile anymore, and then quickly added, “It would be my honour to accompany you, Princess.” Yes, something about honour was always good to add. His father always waxed lyrical about the honour and respect of being a Royal Guard. Turning back to the Commander, “But, um, Sir, I am not a Royal Guard- I haven’t had much experience in being a bodyguard-”

“No matter Link. You know your way better with a sword than most of the Royal Guards we have. And of course, your father is one! I’m sure the Princess doesn’t plan to be out in the wild for too long- the fact that she was sneaking out, means few people know about the trip so I doubt you’ll encounter any trouble. If you leave soon enough, most people will still be asleep as you traverse.” 

Link was at an impasse. Did he nod and agree? If he agreed that meant he agreed with the fact that the Princess was sneaking out, which she had vehemently denied. He didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her, (he scoffed at himself – that would mean _completely disregarding the fact that the past 30 minutes happened_ ) but he didn’t want to disagree with The Commander who had just knighted him. Aha! He had thought of a way out of this quagmire- when in a conversation and you don’t know what to say- change the topic. “I will head down to Ravio and collect the standard Knight weaponry, and then come back here?” 

“Yes, you go do that son. Do you need anything else, Princess?”

“No, Commander.” She turned to face Link, he fought an prolonged internal battle over whether he should meet her eyes or not, (yes because they are very pretty, no because he was still ashamed and it also probably wasn’t very respectful to look royalty in the eyes) and he ended up looking at her nose. “Thank you for the apology Sir Link. I do not fault you for not recognising me, I am hardly in my normal Princess wear and unlike The Commander you haven’t seen me in my cape. I will wait for you here, Knight.”

Link breathed a sigh of relief, turned and briskly walked away, down over to the Armoury, and he tried to put the whole thing behind him, but every time he closed his eyes the whole fiasco replayed. But he couldn’t afford to be distracted, and he wrestled his thoughts away from how idiotic he was, for now at least. He knew when he would go to bed tonight it would be all he would be able to think of. 

He sighed heavily, and soon enough The Armoury came into view. That being said, no one actually called it that- it was nicknamed Ravio’s Toys because his friend who controlled and accounted for the weapons used by Guards, Knights and Royal Guards, was very… possessive over them. 

Much like a child with a toy. 

Link had also never seen Ravio sleep; he was constantly patrolling around the room. As if anyone would steal from Ravio, he’d have such a huge tantrum that the whole Castle would wake up and the mighty Hyrulean Army would be sent out to avenge him and rescue his weapons toys from the clutches of those who did not appreciate them. 

Over the past two years of moving up the ranks from simple squire to occasional guard duty, to knight-in-training, Link had gotten through his fair share of weaponry and had encountered Ravio’s cries every time a weapon had broken whilst it was with him. He’d get out his red ink, normally hidden away behind hordes of standard black ink, and with tears brimming in his eyes, he’d cross out whatever weapon had had the audacity to break. It wasn’t as if Ravio was completely mad- he had set up a side business alongside his weapons- he bartered with other necessary items that weren’t exactly the standard weapons funded for by the Treasury. These, by some magic, weren’t breakable. Probably because they operated like a standard object- rather than a weapon that constantly went into contact with another and so would inevitably be eased away with time. And like the collector hoarder that Link truly was, he’d already bought most of them- the Hookshot was his favourite by far because outside Castle Town, it was rare to find metal hoops placed for linking with magnesis and he could use the hookshot to latch onto and fly at things instead. Thankfully, nothing weapon-wise had broken on the capture-the-fugitive episode, (he cringed yet again, and he wondered if he’d ever be able to get over it), his self-respect, esteem as well as dignity had taken a hard battering, but what else could he do. 

“In again Link! Twice in the night! I hope you didn’t break anything.” Ravio stated, good-naturedly coming up to him and doing a quick loop around him- no doubt inspecting the weapons on his back for damage. 

“No Ravio- I’ve actually come to exchange the standard Soldier’s Broadsword and Bow for the Knight equivalents-”

“YOU’VE BEEN PROMOTED! CONGRATS LINK!” Ravio hollered. He started doing his happy dance around Link, “I’m so proud! I knew you could do it! Captured the fugitive in the end didn’t you!”

Link chose, wisely, to not state anything more about that incident. The Commander would probably reveal it all soon enough, so he would enjoy the feeling of passing his Exam _appropriately_ whilst it would last. “Thanks, Ravio, and it goes without saying that I appreciate all your support these past few years.” 

“Well of course! Who else could have handled your weapons with such care? **No one**!” Ravio huffed as he crawled to the back of his displays, getting out a new set of Knight Gear. Link was excited- the new equipment would come with higher attack power and he always appreciated being given brand new weapons. “So, how are things progressing with Countess Hilda, Ravs?”

There was another fact about Ravio, he was head over heels for a particular countess that was part of the court. Link himself had never seen her, but rumours spread far and wide that she was amongst the prettiest in the Princess’s group, with curly hair that was naturally indigo, but she had ferocious temper if anyone ruffled her feathers the wrong way. It had been a few months since Ravio had confessed of his feelings to Link, but he hadn’t yet mustered the courage to tell her. Link thought the whole thing was rather cute. 

Ravio blanched.

Well Link had been expecting the opposite reaction and now his interest was piqued.  
“You know, Link, I think I am happy with my weapons. Anyway- here’s a brand-new set of Knight’s Gear- the broadsword, bow and shield. How are you doing for arrows- you still have the requisite twenty I imagine?” 

Link noticed the change in topic, and tone, but he didn’t push it. Clearly something had happened, and Ravio was upset, however Link currently didn’t have the time to delve into it- The Commander and the Princess was waiting, and heaven forbid he messed up again. “Thank you Ravs, yeah, I still have 20 in all of them. Listen, I have to leave on a short trip right now- but when I come back, do you want to go to with me to the new Sheikah Amour store they’ve opened? Apparently, they have some really cool shields.”

Ravio’s face lit up again, some colour flooding back to his face, “YES, I’ve been wanting to go but it’s so busy here… and I didn’t want to geek out alone.”

Link gave a small smile, asked if Ravio had slept yet, to which the reply had been a no, and Link had all but shoved him out of his toyshop and down to the Guard’s Chambers. Link sighed, he had delayed returning for long enough, and he left, slowly walking back towards the First Gatehouse, each step he took forward laced with trepidation. Spirits, he was terrified, not only because he'd have to face the Princess again, but because soon he'd be _solely_ responsible for her safety. And that was something he'd never imagined he'd ever have to do, let alone in these circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Any feedback- kudos/comments are really appreciated!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zelda tries comes to term with her new companion...

Zelda’s POV

The First Gatehouse  
Wednesday 4:20 am

Zelda had spent the past 10 minutes meditating. It had been a stressful morning for all involved and she wanted, no, needed, to refocus her mind before leaving. She had come to three conclusions. The first was that she had mostly forgiven Link. It wasn’t hard to see he had simply mistaken her for a random guard and hadn’t paid any attention to who it really was. (Which also had Zelda questioning- did she really look like a guard?) Secondly, and most importantly- he had apologised sincerely, without smirking, seeing as she had essentially been in a somewhat… compromising position. The third conclusion was that she hadn’t really forgiven him for accepting to become her guard so quickly. Surely, he could have seen that she  
A) Didn’t need a guard  
B) Didn’t want a guard  
C) Would have been perfectly fine and already on her way without said guard. Now she was going to be late and accompanied and she didn’t want a random Knight hearing everything Impa had to say. 

That and he had completely skipped The Commander’s accusations. Ok, she wasn’t expecting him to defend her honour, but surely it wasn’t a crime to move into her own study at 3:50 am? It was _her_ study, and she was _The Princess_ of the kingdom and if she wasn’t allowed to go _into her own study_ then what was the point? 

The saddest thing about this whole affair was that they _all_ thought she was actually sneaking out. She HAD sent a letter to her father and it wasn’t her problem if he wasn’t capable enough to read it on time. She conceded that maybe she had deliberately timed the sending of the letter so he would have a smaller chance of seeing it and responding but that was neither here nor there. And the longer she remained in the Castle, the higher the chances were of his servants coming in and fetching the letters for him which meant the chance of a painless trip were diminishing and if only Link hadn’t ambushed her! (Deep _deep_ down, Zelda knew that if she was being really honest with herself, then she would have accepted she let her guard down and hadn’t responded at all appropriately to Link’s ambuscade. She’d assumed, very wrongly, that once she’d gone by the Guards outside her study, it would be smooth sailing to her “secret” exit. So, she had been sneaking, but still. She wasn’t going to admit that to anyone.)

The third was that The Commander was more attuned to her running away than he let on- _how_? She’d always taken such precautions and had always been so sure no one was following her… And he had allowed her to continue to fake-sneak-out without reprimand? _Why?_ Maybe because he trusted her to look after herself and to regain his trust, Zelda would simply have to prove her worth again. Perhaps she could undertake some stealth training with Impa- she honestly had no idea when Link had sauntered into her study.

Her mind started to re-loop around the whole _unnecessary-guard-situation_ and to stop frustrating herself over something that she could no longer immediately fix, she verified that she had indeed packed appropriately, making sure she had her slate, Akhirah’s “rhyme” flashing through her memory. Honestly, she was 28 years old, one of the smartest postgraduates of Hyrule University with a whopping three degrees- the first in Mechanical Engineering, then General Technology, and she’d rounded it all off with Slate Studies. Despite all her academic achievements, she still behaved like a 16-year-old. Which was probably why she got along so well with Zelda. 

Sir Knight seemed to be taking his sweet time. Great, now there was an even higher probability of her father coming to investigate. She needed to think about something else or she’d drive herself insane. Maybe she could discretely ask The Commander about her past trips? How to phrase it though- she couldn’t very well blurt out “SO, how did you know?”

“You seem to be thinking of something particularly unpleasant Princess. You’ve frowned at least 5 times in the past 3 minutes. Rupee for your thoughts?”

Well, now he had opened up the conversation, Zelda would just casually slip it in. “I’ve gone out on small research trips before Commander, and I’ve not needed a Royal Guard for those. I am just wondering as to why I’ve been assigned a Knight for this… particular trip.”

“AHA! So, the real question is why I gave you a guard eh. Or maybe, why I let you go alone all those other times? Do you want to know the truth Princess?”

This was disconcerting. What could possibly be so bad- _unless_ \- he had sent out guards and they just wore civilian clothes to blend in so she wouldn’t suspect! And suspect she didn’t! Dammit, The Commander had caught her again. “I hope you will enlighten me Commander.”

He smiled. “The truth is, Hyrule has always been a safe kingdom. There are no wars occurring, and as of now, we are at the most prosperous we have ever been. If you wish to go to Castle Town alone, dressed in your cape so your identity isn’t immediately obvious, then I see no harm in that. We have plenty of guards patrolling the street as it is normally, and some guards dressed as civilians to make sure no shoplifting occurs. If they can look out for you discretely then that works out for us all. The other _not-so-secret_ trips you’ve had, the Sheikah have managed your safety. Sometimes having obvious guards is not the safest method of protecting a Princess- a shadow is often much more effective.” 

He gave her a pointed look before stressing, “They cannot be seen, yet, they see everything.” 

Zelda hummed in response. 

“It has only been this past month where the Sheikah have had to pause their normal operations regarding protection of the Royal Family. Impa assured me that was soon they will be able to retake on their normal protection services. And you’ve not had any trips this past month, bar this one. Of course, my Royal Guard is one of the best- but they are much more suited for Royal Excursions, and even then, we still have the Sheikah on hand.”

Zelda was surprised- she knew Impa protected her, but she didn’t realise that she had had a whole host of Sheikah following her, ensuring her safety. Ha and to think she thought The Commander though her competent. “I never realised the Sheikah played such a large role in my protection. I didn’t know they were there. How many would follow me out each time I left without Royal Guards?”

“That is sort of the point Princess. They blend seamlessly into any shadow and are the stealthiest warriors I have ever come across. If you knew to look into the shadows, you’d enlighten anyone trying to assassinate you that you have Sheikah protection. This is a well-guarded secret of my division- we do not associate ourselves with the Sheikah, that way, there is a smaller chance of information leaking about the huge role they play in the Royal Family’s protection. Think of it like a final ring of defence, they only make themselves known if your life is truly in danger. I, myself, do not know how many Sheikah accompany you for each trip- I know at any one time there are normally around 20 Sheikah on hand at the Castle- as I mentioned before, however, they are not any right this minute.”

“I wonder why Impa would summon all the Sheikah. What could possibly be so significant?” Zelda mused. 

“Your guess is probably better than mine Princess.”

“One last question Commander-”

“We both know that’s probably not true Princess. Nothing ever could satiate your curiosity.” The Commander chuckled. 

Zelda blushed slightly. “Ahem. Surely being curious about the world is a good thing?” she coughed, “Anyway, I wanted to ask- why did you assign a Knight instead of a Royal Guard? Apart from how he’d um, captured… me. Why Link?”

And at that moment Link walked in. 

Zelda felt a blush rising in her cheeks- she hadn’t wanted him to hear! It wasn’t like she preferred any of the Royal Guards, well none of them had carried her in such a way, but she had just been curious!

“Now, there’s a good question. Why don’t I provide a visual presentation to answer your question? LINK ON GUARD!” The Commander shouted, drawing his Royal Broadsword out, and twisting with the agility of a 20-year-old even though The Commander was well into his forties. 

Link’s typically calm-water eyes widened, darkening almost like the sea was raging in a storm, his pupils dilating and his limbs were trembling slightly, probably in anticipation, and his face paled. All the classic elements of the sympathetic response, Zelda noted. But then, Link stabilised, he pulled out his Knight’s Broadsword, and nodded his head in response to The Commander’s call.  
Then he jumped, rammed his shield (when had he gotten hold of that?) against The Commander’s hand clasping the hilt of the Royal Broadsword, spinning 180 degrees so he was now facing The Commander’s back. He whipped his sword up to The Commander’s neck intending to end the fight, but he wasn’t expecting The Commander to shift to the left, jump back a solid 2 metres and yell out “Not so fast boy. I wasn’t made Commander over nothing.”

Zelda heard Link emit out a small puff of breath- an almost sigh, before he went back into a standard defensive position. For the next two minutes, the two lashed out, swords clanged, and Zelda couldn’t really follow all the slashes and strikes. But then Link suddenly turned away from The Commander, Zelda couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath she sucked in- surely that was a dumb move to not face your opponent? But then he executed a perfect backflip, up and over The Commander’s head, before ramming the tip of his sword into The Commander’s amour. 

Wow. 

The whole thing had lasted around 3.5 minutes. Link had beaten The Commander of _all of Hyrule’s forces_ in 3.5 minutes. Zelda was suddenly very glad he was a Hylian and on their side. Maybe he was descended from the ancient warrior tribe - the Zonai? 

She didn’t have much longer to ponder that particular though, because Link had already come to stand behind her, four paces behind, and seemed to be awaiting her next move. He’d already recovered from his sympathetic overload. Now that was interesting. Normally one would feel the effects of strenuous exercise for at least a few minutes afterwards. You could barely hear him breathe. What was this boy made of? Well, even if he hadn’t trained with the Royal Guard, he knew the rules of the 4-steps well enough. The Commander had mentioned his father – a member of the Royal Guard- would be shocked to hear of his… misadventures this morning and Zelda couldn’t help but rollcall out the names of the guards she knew and try to match them to Link. But she was distracted by a loud cough. The Commander was not looking so good. Evidently, he was no Link. He had gone red in the face and was huffing and puffing like he’d just run a marathon. 

“Evidence enough, I assume, for your satisfaction Princess?” He wheezed out. Zelda was unnervingly reminded of The Commander’s age. He was no longer the fit, fighting- strong man she had known in her childhood. He’d been the one to gift her a bow and had taught her archery and they would have progressed into swordplay had her father not found out and put an end to it. She suddenly felt a burst of gratitude to this man, who’d let her live her life a little- yes, he had shadows follow her, but he’d given her such freedom in return. After all the shadows weren’t expecting princess behaviour- they simply followed and protected at a distance unlike the Royal Guards. And he was obviously willing to allow himself to be thoroughly beaten- he must have known Link would annihilate him, but he had strived to show her why he knew Link to be the best substitute he could give her, that wasn’t a Royal Guard. He was still compromising and accommodating her wishes to not be mollycoddled endlessly. She promised to herself then, she wouldn’t run away from Link as she had been planning. She wouldn’t want The Commander to worry over her- especially now she knew all the Sheikah had been summoned by Impa. 

“Yes Commander. I suggest you go rest; you must have had a stressful night… planning exams on top of my uh, unexpected appearance. I promise I won’t give him a hard time.” Zelda smiled and she procured her handkerchief and handed it over to The Commander. 

“Why thank you Princess, I assure you, I will now have a long nap until noon. However, I will have to decline your second offer- we men have no use for such frilly pieces of material.” The Commander joked, but it was clear her words had relaxed him, the lines in his face were less prominent and even though she knew he was trying to hide it, he looked and sounded relieved she was cooperating. 

“Well, Knight, I guess we should be on our way. I will still travel to Castle Town via my Study, Commander, as it is the nearest exit to my destination.” A bigger lie had not been said, her Study was in the opposite direction to Hateno, but hey, she didn’t want to travel by horse. And she knew The Commander would probably not approve of public transport. Yes, she’d agreed to cooperate with the Knight- but that didn’t mean she was going to follow all the protocol. She still called the shots, she would decide how she wanted to travel, where she wanted to stop, how long she was going to be there, and the Knight would have to get used to that. Yeah ok, if by some miracle monsters actually turned up then sure he could help her, but she’d be there with her bow too! (And anyways- if she used her Study exit then there was a smaller chance of being caught by Castle Staff.) She was going to go to Castle Town Train Station, and finally get to experience the new service, instead of the developmental ones she'd previously gone on. 

“Safe travels Princess. I hope you have a productive trip.” And with that, The Commander turned around and headed in the direction of the Guard’s Chamber, leaving her and Link alone. 

  
Link’s POV  
The Princess’s Balcony 4:35am

Link stifled back a yawn, he’d been an idiot and had chosen to not sleep during the day before his exam. The fistake was that he shouldn’t have trained so hard in the morning, before meeting The Commander, and the second, more grevious one was that after receiving his exam details, he should have gone to sleep, but no, he didn’t like to sleep when the sun was out. And of course he hadn’t slept the entire night – he’d been hanging off the highest spiral and had been contemplating life whilst trying to spot a fugitive. So that meant, he’d been awake for what? 16 hours? And now he’d be on active duty for however many hours the Princess decided to be out for, meaning bedtime was currently very far off.

He sighed, thinking back to the beautiful sunset. That all seemed like a lifetime away- had it only been an hour since everything had swerved so drastically? He was following the Princess- trying to be silent. He guessed that she didn’t want him there- she had been trying to quietly escape from the Castle and like an idiot he had bumbled in and ruined her plans. Although, secretly he was glad he had captured her. If she had left without any protection and had come across a skull shaped monster camp like the one on the Great Plateau and had she not reacted in time, she might not have survived. And she was fully right in asking The Commander about his decision to enlist him as her temporary protector. He had only _just_ graduated to Knighthood status, literally, he wasn’t trained enough to ensure the safety of probably the _most important teenager_ in all of Hyrule! How had he found himself babysitting? It was the one thing Link had sworn not to do, he hadn’t planned on seeing the Princess ever again after Smile Day (he needed to think of a better name for that) and now here he was following her around, _just the two of them_. 

She still hadn’t mentioned where they were going. The Royal Stables was in the opposite direction to her Study, which ruled out horse riding. If they weren’t riding horses were they going to walk? Link gave a deep sign inwardly; walking was long and would take at least 3 times as long compared to horse travel to get anywhere. Maybe he could shield surf whilst Her Highness ambled through, that would be a lot more interesting. Should he ask her where they were headed to? Technically as her protector, he should at least have a vague idea to what part of the country they were headed towards? But that would be breaking his cardinal rule of only speak when spoken to.

By the time Link had finished that thought, the Princess had already grabbed a box off the floor of the Study- oh, he had caused her to drop it when he had shocked her and then tied her wrists and then – NO he didn’t need to think further, he already felt a blush start to creep up to his cheeks. 

She turned around, aimed for a plastic-looking potted plant and shoved the leaves aside, revealing a lock. Huh, a lock in a stone wall. She flipped the key in, gave a good twist, and the stone door moved back, revealing a passage. She grabbed a torch, handed him one (should he say thanks?) he nodded his thanks instead, and they lit them using the fire in her hearth. He’d shut the door (it was strangely very light which probably meant it was a very thin layer of stone over hollow wood) once they were both inside, and then they had descended down what seemed like a spiral of a thousand steps. Link was trying his very best to not focus on how the small glimpse of her hair that he’d seen beneath the cape glimmered in the torch light, and how he wanted to touch it, just once, to see if it was as soft as it looked. Or how her eye colour had shimmered into an almost hazel colour when the crimson flames flickered onto her emerald eyes. Or how mortifyingly embarrassing it was to be in such close proximity to her again, especially after he had wrapped his arm around her midriff. Link desperately needed to distract himself from his newly developed split-brain personality (yes, he knew his brain had two halves he did focus sometimes in science class when he was younger). 

Half of him wanted to reach out and touch her whilst the other wanted to run down to the Lock-up and lock himself in there, in self-exile, until 100 years had passed and everyone, including himself, had lost their memory of what he had done to the Princess. And that was how Link ended up counting all the stairs – each step seemed to resonate with the overriding guilt he felt. It turned out there were 248. At the end of the staircase, there was another longish corridor, and a simple nondescript wooden door that the Princess shoved open, and they walked out of the bottom of Hyrule Castle- on west side. 

The Princess took a deep breath, as though she hadn’t been breathing properly down the alley, which he could understand- it had been musty. She faced him and gave a half smile. “I guess you now know one of the secret pathways in the Castle. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t reveal it- not saying that you would- but, um- anyway.”

She seemed flustered but for the life of him Link couldn’t figure out why. She hadn’t done anything wrong after all, it had been him who had completely messed up. She seemed to be waiting for an answer. Link was still suffering from split brain syndrome. He didn’t want to accidentally say something really idiotic like _“Your eyes and hair distracted me sufficiently Princess, and that’s ignoring how my actions from earlier today have been playing a repeat of The Best Highlights in How Idiotic Can You Be- Link Edition 2500.”_  
“I promise to not divulge out the secret, Your Royal Highness. I don’t tend to speak much anyway.” This was his once chance! Ask her where she’s headed to! “If I may be so bold, Princess, where exactly are we going?”

She frowned, probably because he’d reminded her that he was coming with. Spirits, if someone had abducted him, tied him up like a criminal and then carted him to Goddess’s knew where he’d want to run a mile from them - not go out on a bloody field trip to make flower crowns and daisy chains. “We are going to Hateno Village, _Knight._ ” She seemed to add a little bit of a fire to her voice when she called him by his position. Guess she didn’t like to be questioned (or more likely still she just didn’t like _him_ ). Both of which were completely understandable. 

“I want to take the train from Castle Town Central- it will arrive at 5:00 am to depart to Kakariko, I’ve already missed the 4:40 am,” she glanced down at her Slate confirming the time, frowning slightly. And with that, she turned and strode ahead, Link outwardly calmly walking 4 steps behind whilst his brain fizzed and popped, alternating between guilt and dare he think it- excitement. Because despite everything, deep down, Link admitted quietly to himself, that he actually didn’t really mind being this close to the Princess, and he could only hope that eventually she’d forgive him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter the adventure _finally_ starts!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Train journeys aren't always safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Spoilers ahead because I have to do a Trigger warning, and if you aren't affected by triggers then please skip this bit*
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: There will be a panic attack occurring in this chapter- please read at your discretion.

Zelda’s POV

Castle Town Central Train Station, 4:53 am 

It was still relatively early- the daily commuting crowds had not struck up yet, and everything was still calm, collected and running on time. Four races in Hyrule had collaborated together to create the train system- the Sheikah, Gorons, Gerudo alongside Castle Town Hylians to create this huge station. The Sheikah had created the trains themselves, the design for the tracks and all the mechanisms such as door openings using their technology, the Gorons had done most of the manual labour moving the nickel and reshaping it according to Sheikah instructions, the Gerudo had contributed with the electric wiring of the whole station and had worked with the Castle Town architects to create a timeless, elegant building. The entrance itself was beautiful in its simplistic design – a domed structure that rose well above 20 metres and had geometric arrangement of triangles engraved across the border, with a huge Triforce in the middle of the stone. The whole thing lit up with a few well-placed electric bulbs which gave the archway an otherworldly feel with the olive coloured, hazy coloured backdrop of electricity. Zelda was always awestruck every time she passed by the station- it represented what she believed Hyrule was- a nation where everyone contributed their talents and created mastery. 

They had bought tickets relatively quickly; the ticket master had assumed they were tourists of some sort and had given them harried instructions to go back to his snooze. Well to be fair, it was early and the really bustle would start soon enough anyway- who could fault him for wanting to relax a little before the pace picked up. 

The train bound for Kakariko would depart from Castle Town, so it was already there on the platform, and they entered through the sleek black sliding doors. She bent down, to admire the clever contraption, grabbing her notebook and flipping to the page where they had worked out the mechanics to see if the final design had changed. There were two small metallic latches on the door that connected to two small hooks in the platform and depending on which direction the train was moving in they would alternate the pair that was in use. As for this train, whilst it was still pulling in, magnesis linking would connect both latches and hooks to each other, and stasis would be activated on the second hook, keeping it in place whilst the first hook continued to slide down, effectively pulling the door open. As the second hook effectively acted as a doorstop- the door opens as the train pulls to a stop. 

Although she hadn’t seen the station since under construction- the designs she had more or less matched to what she could now observe, and it made her smile to see the results of what had involved extensive planning. She went onto her knees, trying to see if she could spot the underwiring that they had done. It had been complicated, they had set up a main connector at each platform which the driver would send out signals to, and that connector would then activate stasis to each mini slate connected to each hook. She hummed, and then stepped inside properly, and she vaguely registered Link following, but she didn’t pay him much heed because the door closed. She couldn’t help but let out a small squeal of excitement at finally seeing it in action, and all of a sudden, her vision was clouded by a dark blue Sheikah tunic right up beside her, after a quick glance upwards- she realised it was Link invading her personal space, yet again. When would he learn?! His arms were stretched out around her- almost forming a barricade whilst he scanned and rescanned the vicinity. “Are you ok Princess?”

Well at least this time he didn’t slump her over his shoulder and try to run away. 

“I’m fine _Knight_ \- I was just excited over the door closing, is all. Nothing attacked me, you can step away now.” She inwardly cringed, even to herself that sounded a bit harsh. Well, in her defence, he did terrify her completely the last time he had come this close. She’d already decided she wasn’t going to forgive him for becoming her guard so easily though and this seemed the best way to reassert control. She might have had to bring him with her for The Commander’s sake, but that didn’t mean she had to treat him like he was a saint. 

Link nodded, his cheeks flushing crimson, as he rapidly stepped back, his right arm caught in mid-air again like earlier. What was he trying to do? At that exact moment the train floated out, jerking as the stasis push rammed the train along before the linking could occur with magnesis. Link couldn’t hold his balance through the jerk- even Zelda was stumbling and she had been standing still with two feet planted firmly on the ground. He wind-milled his arms whilst trying to get his legs to cooperate and hold his weight, his face stricken with fear, embarrassment and panic toppled into one. 

Zelda burst out laughing. 

This was sweet revenge. He had obviously never been on a train before because for all his finesse when fighting, and his obvious stamina when working out, he couldn’t his maintain balance with a simple jerk?

Link flushed a darker scarlet, grabbed hold of the cylinders strategically placed through the cabin and righted himself. Zelda was still chuckling. “Are **you** alright _Knight_? Do you need some protection from the mighty powers of gravity? I could potentially hold you up with magnesis.” 

Link’s brow furrowed; but then he seemed to remember who she was and reverted back to his standard neutral expression. “I assure you I am fine Princess. Just… surprised is all.”

Zelda smiled, swallowed down her last laugh, and walked over to the wide glass window. The seats were all in the standard Sheikah navy, and she sat down almost sideways in one of them so she could see out of the glass window. Their carriage was empty- it was the first stop and still quite early so there was no need to share the seats yet. She gazed outside, as they passed through the last of the station to enter the underground cavern that was the length of Castle Town. It went dark, and the familiar cerulean lines that often adorned Sheikah architecture lit up the cabin. Link was overshadowed with the hue, and as he sat down next to her, in the relative darkness, his face was the only thing she could really see in contrast. 

As the train sped up, her ears began to pop, and she noticed Link trying to rub his own ears. “Your ears are adjusting to the pressure change Knight- it is normal for them to be popping right now.” He looked relieved, stopped fidgeting and let his head fall back to the edge of the seat, adjusting his sword so that he wouldn’t cut his neck. Zelda wanted to ask more questions- like whether this was his first time travelling in the train, like her, what did he think so far, did he see the door close?! And then she remembered that she was supposed to not want him here. Maybe The Commander was right about her curiosity- she did have a thirst for knowledge. He looked very tired all of a sudden- she wondered what time he’d gotten up for his trial (haha _even more questions_ Zelda). The day hadn’t properly begun but already so much had happened. She vaguely thought of her father and what he would have to say about the events so far, and then promptly dismissed it. Today was supposed to be an informative, research-filled, do-what-the-tech-commands day and by Hylia she would achieve all three of those aims. 

Link’s POV

Somewhere underground in the middle of Castle Town, 5:20 am 

His brain had now logged in a new memory in The Best Highlights of How Idiotic Can You Be- Link Edition 2501- the inability to remain upright in a moving train. Link wondered just how many more entries they’d be in this one day accompanying the Princess. There was one positive thing that had come out of it though- he’d made the Princess laugh. It was better than a frown anyway, and she’d sounded so carefree then. Even if she’d been laughing over his foolishness, at least she was smiling around him again. And then he had sat down next to her, which probably hadn’t been the smartest idea because now the slow lull of the train trundling along was sending him to sleep. Would it be so bad if he had a quick nap? No. He couldn’t fall asleep whilst on duty! Even as he was thinking that thought, he felt the fatigue kick in- it had been a sleepless night followed by a highly charged emotional morning after all and he felt the tendrils of sleep ensnare him. It wasn’t that Link wasn’t used to being awake during the night- he’d suffered through many shifts of night duty as a guard, but he often spent those shifts in a reflective, meditative state, which was much more relaxing and less energy-taxing than constant surveillance to find a fugitive. Within mere seconds he felt himself plunge into a deep slumber, and even though he tried to fight it, he couldn’t resist and gave in. 

He awoke to the sound of gasps and people walking heavily around him. Link felt momentarily displaced- what was going on? Where was he again? A female-sounding scream tore from the person on his left, and echoed right through the carriage, whilst simultaneously something hit the window causing the whole train carriage to jostle slightly to the left. Link bolted upright- his heart rate shot up as he suddenly remembered he was supposed to be guarding the Princess, they were currently somewhere between Kakariko and Castle Town and the carriage was significantly busier compared to when he fell asleep, and most importantly, she was screaming- something was very wrong. 

He spun around- an ice arrow was lodged in the window slightly to the left of the Princess. There was no doubt as to who it was aimed for. How had they known? A crack spread from the tip of the arrow as the ice spread through and the fissure started to grow. The window was going to shatter soon- and then another ice arrow smashed in. Link moved, there was no time to think further, and he shoved his shield behind the Princess, pulled her down to the floor so that her back was against the seats, her head covered with the shield, her legs bent, and her knees leant against his own. He pulled closer, wrapping his arms around her to hold the shield. He cocooned himself around her, a physical shield, mere milliseconds before the whole pane ruptured and glass flew around them. He felt a few bits lodge into his arm which was gripping the shield into position. 

And then pandemonium broke out- everyone started to scream, panicked commuters ran off into the other carriages, and Link would have followed them, but the assailants were after the Princess and he couldn’t risk them shooting at civilians, in a bid to shoot at and harm her. That, and the Princess was probably in the safest position she could be right now- he was fully shielding her and that would be immeasurably more difficult if they were moving. 

He was frustrated though- he had no training for this sort of scenario- he had no clue what sort of protocol he was meant to be following. And he’d fallen asleep and something had attacked! He was failing in his promise to The Commander and the Princess. He quickly got out his Knight’s Bow, and equipped his ice arrows, and also took out his slate. He risked a glance above the shield and saw the aggressors properly for the first time. There were three horse-riding blue bokoblins- how had they managed to tame the wild horses? Where did they even come from? Monsters were a relatively rare sight in Hyrule- this many in one pack working together to _cohesively attack a train_ was worrying. He quickly used stasis on one of them, freezing it in time so the horse ran out without the rider on its back, and flung out two ice arrows at the others. He missed the first, his arms and hands were shaking slightly with the excess adrenaline coursing through and that bokoblin had time to reload their bow, but Link reacted in time and managed to freeze it with his second shot. He wouldn’t be able to kill them- the train was moving too fast for that but at least they were injured and wouldn’t be able to harm the Princess anymore. He could just glimpse Wetland stable in the distance- he would have to report this to The Commander when he went back to deal with them- the bokoblins could easily re-tame other horses and continue to terrorise innocent commuters. 

He was distracted from his thoughts when he felt vibrations coming from near his chest. Spirits, he’d been so absorbed in the fight that he’d completely forgotten just how close the Princess was. She was practically sitting in his lap. And she was shaking. Link didn’t have much exposure to girls- he was an only child, and he’d always been too silent for them to pay any attention to him, and even then, he’d joined the Hyrulean forces when he was so young and that meant he’d grown up without any meaningful interaction with a girl his age. How did one go about comforting a girl? 

“Princess- its over- they’re far behind us now.” he whispered slowly, trying not to startle her further. He was half-tempted to rub her arms and stroke her hair because those were things he could remember his mother doing to him, whenever he was scared or in tears. He didn’t know if it would be appropriate though. She hadn’t responded, and her breathing was getting shallower, not deeper. Link was starting to get worried- hell the fight had been easier. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last time that day, Link felt so underprepared. He really shouldn’t have been assigned her guard- he was so lost. He couldn’t even stay awake to protect her! 

Her breathing was getting even more erratic, and she’d started to take gasps of air as though it hurt to breathe- was she injured? Link cast a quick glance around- the carriage was more or less empty, no one could tell she was the Princess with her cape anyway so he wouldn’t tarnish her reputation and image if he tried to check her for injures and comfort her right? Anyway, wasn’t that part of his job description as her protector? He slowly put the shield away, trying not to do any abrupt movements, and elevated himself slightly- but he couldn’t see any injuries on her back- he hadn’t been expecting any because the shield had covered her completely. 

What if she was shaking because she was so angry at how Link had more or less forced her to move against her will much like he had earlier? He’d noticed she spoke his title with distaste but surely, she could see that this time he’d been trying to protect her? Maybe he should move away from her and see if that helped her?

Gently, he lifted the hood off her face slightly- she was evidently panicking, her eyes unfocussed- distant and not seeing him, and she was still shaking- it was getting worse. Ok she wasn’t angry- she was absolutely petrified; he could see that now. Link could guess what this was- she was having a panic attack; he’d seen many guards have them after experiencing some form of trauma. The last skirmish some odd 30 years ago with the Lurelin Invaders down south had given a lot of them mental scars that weren’t so easy to fix as the physical wounds had been. He weaved his fingers between hers, clasped her hands tight, he needed to make her aware that whatever she was seeing wasn’t real, “I’m right here Princess - can you feel my hands? I’m right here and I’m not letting go.” 

She didn’t reply, her breathing was getting worse. Link tried to stop himself from panicking, because what the hell would be do if she continued to struggle to breathe, and instead focussed on what he could remember. Ok, tactic two try saying her given name rather than position. “Zelda- can you hear my voice- I’m pressing into your hands.”

She started to tremble even more- “I can’t feel my hands! I can’t feel them!!” she whisper-cried back to him. Tears started to form in her verdant eyes, they now had a glassy sheen to them. Link felt something stir inside him, his heart hurt with hers. It never felt good watching someone cry. But Link decided to focus on the positives- she was responding! Zelda it was. 

“I’m holding them right here- see” Link pressed tighter still and started to rub circles with his thumb on her wrist. He raised their joined hands up so she could see them. “Can you see your hands Zelda- see I’m holding them right here.” Link spoke slowly, in a low voice, trying to calm her down and not frighten her any more than she currently was. He was terrified though- he’d never personally soothed someone suffering from a panic attack before and he was uncertain as to which way was the best to proceed. Not to mention about 2 hours ago _he’d_ been the one to scare the living daylights out of her and maybe in all her fear she’d forget that he hadn’t done anything deliberately to harm her- he hadn’t known it was the Princess dammit.

She slowly started to refocus her eyes on their hands. Link let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. This was all his fault, if he had just stayed awake, he would have seen the bokoblins from a mile out and would have moved the Princess away. He ignored the rational voice that told him that he wouldn’t have been able to do much anyway, it was a moving train for Hylia’s sake - he would have had to break the glass to get at them. He shoved that ball of emotions to the back of his mind, he needed to help Zelda, and feeling guilty over something he couldn’t change wouldn’t help matters. He took a deep breath, and that triggered him to remember the third tactic- get the person to breathe with you. 

“Breath with me Zelda, slowly now, in and out” He exaggerated his own breathing, slowing down, pressing tighter onto her hands, and he watched as she repeated his movements. “That’s it- you’re doing great, in and out.” 

Slowly she calmed down, Link gently pulled one hand out of her now death-tight grip, and softly brushed some of the strands of her hair that had gotten plastered onto her face with her sweat. Her eyes followed his fingers, and as soon as he finished, she latched up and grasped his hand back into hers. He let her hold on, it was the one thing that was gripping her to this reality instead of one of pain and fear, and he would let her stop his blood circulation in his hands for as long as she needed to. 

She let out a deep, still slightly shuddering, breath and faced him. 

“Thank you, Link.”

Oh, thank the Goddesses, she was back with him. She was breathing properly, and she was looking at him, focused on him, and not the panic. The guilt he felt eased slightly, because at least she had recovered somewhat. Only belatedly did he realise that she’d said his name, and she’d said it in a non-hostile, welcome tone. He smiled, mostly out of sheer relief she was alright, and maybe a little bit because he was happy that she no longer seemed displeased with him. He had hope now that maybe he could recover some of the respect he had lost. That maybe, he had a shot of being a knight she could rely on, and not the jerk who abducted her and who fell asleep when she had needed help. 

In the middle of an empty train carriage, surrounded by fractured glass, ironically Link felt something piece together between the Princess and himself- hope and tentative trust. Link’s smile grew, he still felt guilty, but he was going to focus on the positives, on the here and now and Zelda was okay. He clasped her hands more firmly, linking his fingers tightly with hers, all notion of proprietary gone well out of the shattered window. He whispered back, “My pleasure Zelda.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's all be fun and games and humour up till now guys, angst had to feature at some point. I'm still sorry though Zelda. 
> 
> I just wanted to thank the 521 people who've clicked on this- thank you for giving my story a shot!  
> And thank you to those who have left kudos and written comments- I really appreciate it!  
> And a special thank you to SugarBubbles2000 for being such a supportive bestie ily


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A change of travel plans. Plus fruitcake because we all have comfort foods.

Zelda’s POV  
Wetland Stable Train Station, 6:40 am

Zelda was still feeling out of sorts, she felt a headache building up – which often happened after her panic attacks and she still felt grossly sweaty and just wanted a warm shower to rid her physically of all the perspiration and mentally of all the emotions that were running rampant through her. She’d asked Link to go find some horses they could rent out for the day because, right now, she couldn’t stand the thought of going on more trains. He’d left her in Wetland Stable after much hesitance on his part and insistence on hers (and she’d only convinced him _to finally go_ after he’d extracted a promise from her that she wouldn’t move an inch). 

She glanced around; Wetland stable was a large industrious stable house- it was located in a prime location for travellers wanting a pitstop break before going into Castle Town. That and the train prices here, including returns, were reasonable so many families would come in with their horses from around Hyrule and then take the train to spend the day touring Castle Town before heading home. That was the main thing she could remember from her commerce classes, although right now, it didn’t seem _too_ busy though, which Zelda was thankful for- perhaps it was still too early for tourism to kick in. 

The Stable design was pretty, in an innocent farmhouse way- it had a rustic, vintage theme, with a large indoor living room decorated with a humongous map of Hyrule. Small olive ottomans surrounded a fireplace, and there was a bar in the back, complete with small dining tables that had a cream ceramic top with more olive-coloured seats. There were stairs which Zelda presumed led off to the bedrooms. She knew was grasping at straws such as interior design to distract herself, trying to delay the inevitable- she didn’t want to think back to the panic that had ensnared her so strongly. 

She sighed, she only had a few minutes alone to try to fix her brain and starve off the residual anxiety she still felt. She hadn’t been expecting a breakdown. Well. That was debatable- she had been fending it off since the fake abduction, but she honestly thought she had more or less recovered control of herself and hadn’t sensed the panic building up until it was too late, and she had more or less collapsed in front of Link. Ice arrows were the worst. She’d only seen them in real time action once- and she’d rather _not_ go through that particular memory again- she was still, 20 minutes after the whole thing, feeling very fragile- anything could tip her off again. 

She didn’t really remember what happened to her or what she had said whilst the panic raged inside her- all she had snapshots of the ice, the glass, the cuts in Link’s arm- the blood trailing down and unadulterated fear that she would meet the same end as- NO. 

She broke free of that train of thought, and instead focused on the one good thing that had happened- this was the fastest time she’d ever recovered from the panic state. The thing with her mind was that, yes, whilst she was very analytical and loved solving puzzles- her brain obsessively looped around solving said puzzle and wouldn’t rest until the solution was obtained. This was all very well and good when it came to technology, or sudoku (of which she was a huge fan), but not so much when she fell victim to the panic. Because then, the fear, panic and pain would rotate constantly around in her head- the same three or four thoughts revolving round and round like a propelling wheel, and she couldn’t solve it. 

Thus, it never stopped. 

To be fair, that was a half lie. It did stop once she’d exhausted herself into a fit, her adrenaline stores finally depleted, and she would black out. But that normally took several hours. It had taken Link mere minutes to work his magic, and she was back. She’d _never_ been awake when the panic ended. Zelda was really confused about that- just what exactly did he do? Even Impa, her guardian and really the closest person Zelda had to a mother, couldn't stop them. Then again, that wasn’t a fair comparison, because Impa had often run in when Zelda was mostly already gone, and already unable to respond whereas Link comparatively had been there from the start of this one. 

Where had he learnt how to handle panic attacks? Did the trainee knights have some sort of first aid for mental maladies course? It would have been seriously taboo for a Princess of Hyrule’s Royal Family to ever have a mental health condition, so she’d always had to keep it hidden as best as she could. And anyway, she’d done plenty of research herself and there wasn’t much you could do for panic attacks other than wait them out and avoid anything that could trigger one. That and stuff all the doctors would say every time you went anyway, “eat healthily and do exercise”. But Zelda was afraid of asking Link any questions. It would inevitably mean she’d have to explain why she had collapsed into fear so quickly, and she wasn’t comfortable talking about what had happened. So, she had a plan of sorts- she’d engage him with her ability of sprouting the most random questions, and hopefully he’d be distracted enough that he wouldn’t ask any himself. Plus, Link didn’t seem like the kind of person to ask invasive questions, so hopefully that tactic would work. 

She thought back to the last thing she could remember- saying thank you and how when she’d said his name instead of his position, Link had smiled, and it felt like she’d done something right. She wouldn’t intentionally mistreat him again; he’d comforted her in her time of need and hadn’t laughed in her face at what a weak and fallible Princess she was. He had given her all the time she needed to regain her proprioception and let her, more or less, give his hands ischaemic hypoxia. There was the second difference between Link and Impa. Impa had never forgotten she was a Princess and always respected her boundaries, never touching her without consent which she couldn’t very well give in the middle of an attack anyway. Link had tossed all thoughts of proprietary and decorum to the wolves when he’d grasped her hands so firmly in his own, or when he’d brushed her hair out of her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat at that thought (wait that wasn’t healthy- was it another sign of an imminent panic attack?) and she fought down blushing into a beetroot, it wasn’t normal to _blush over memories_ right? He’d gently helped her stand after around 10 minutes, whispering that the only reason why they had to move was because he was scared the remaining barely attached glass would break off the windowsill and fly onto them. That and at some point, they were going to have to trek through the glass to reach a door and it would be easier to do so without a rush of people stomping in at the next upcoming stop. 

He’d turned around then- probably to check which way was safest to navigate out of the blades of glass littered across the floor- and she’d spotted the ice arrows in Link’s quiver. That had nearly set her off all over again- until Link had whipped around, asking her what was wrong, and she’d pointed at them. He seemingly understood and swapped them out for fire ones. Those were better. It wasn’t lost on Zelda that he’d chosen the opposite to the ice arrows.

Things went downhill after trying to stand upright though. As she’d never regained conscious thought after a panic induced fit, she had no idea what to expect. She was working on completely unknown territory- everything was a new variable and she had no data with which compare. She had no clue if she would be able to stand, if she would be able to coherently move, if she would even be able to balance. She also hadn’t wanted Link to think she was even weaker than what he’d already seen. He’d slowly let go of her hand and had tentatively wrapped it around her shoulder- she smiled to let him know it was ok, and slowly, _slowly_ they had stood up together. But then Zelda’s knees had started to tremble, and the shaking started to spread to her thighs. Her stupid limbs- they were betraying her! 

Link took one look at her, and had then whispered, “Would it be ok- I mean, would you mind- uh- is it appropriate…” He flushed, coughed a little bit, rubbed his neck with his hand (OH that was what he had wanted to do!). He focussed his piercingly calm azure eyes on her, whispering, “Can I carry you?” 

And then he had blushed harder and tried to backtrack and it was adorable. It made Zelda feel warm again, from deep inside, which she had doubted she ever would feel again after the ice episode. “I, uh, I mean I’m not doing it _romantically_ , I just… You’re shaking Princess, I can’t risk you slipping on the glass.” Then he seemed to realise that he’d just insinuated she’d be so clumsy, and Goddess’s forbid a Princess be clumsy, ‘Not that you would fall, of course, but um…” She decided to put him out of his misery then, mainly because her knees were going to give out, otherwise she’d have let him continue his embarrassment for a little longer. She laughed, a shaky thing, but still, and told him in no uncertain terms, “You have my full permission to carry me, Link. I know you wouldn’t allow a smudge to appear on my reputation. But also, I am not immediately recognisable as the Princess in what I am currently wearing so…” 

He hummed his agreement, and then bent down, his forearm looped around her legs (which were still completely ignoring her repeated commands of “Be Still!”), and his other arm moved slightly lower than her shoulder- around her midriff. He held her at around 30 centimetres distance from himself. Zelda had initially approved of that, but then she had shivered and had unconsciously shuffled just slightly closer to him. 

Link paused, “Are you cold Princess?”, she had nodded in response and he immediately pulled her close. She suddenly became acutely aware of everything; every inch of skin on her legs, abdomen and thorax in contact with him, the sheen of sweat still present on her face (should have wiped it!), a distinct smell of forest pine, apples and weirdly flint that emanated from Link, the hard definition of muscle she could feel- an undercurrent of power that rippled through his Sheikah Amour, which didn’t leave much to the imagination anyway. Zelda had one overriding thought above all else though: 

He was a furnace! 

And maybe she was using that as an excuse for how much she had blushed. He had momentarily hefted her higher, and then marched over the glass nimbly, she couldn’t help the mental image of a muscular man doing ballerina moves with pointed toes that had popped into her already mangled thoughts, and then they had reached the door. 

He didn’t set her down. 

The next station- Wetland Stable- came into view, and she’s gotten off the train in her Knight’s arms. She pulled her cape down firmly- it wouldn’t do for anyone to recognise her, even by accident, and send reports to the Castle and her father. Link seemed to understand, pulling her closer still, she now felt all warm and fuzzy inside, like someone had set off a firework inside the stomach and the sparks and heat had spread everywhere. Or maybe perhaps a more accurate comparison would be how she’d feel after eating a good slice of fruitcake but multiplied all over her body instead of just her stomach and brain. He’d walked to the right of the dining room and had gradually set her down on an olive coloured sofa. She couldn’t have picked a better spot herself- not bursting with people so she’d be overwhelmed, but also not isolated so people could potentially help them if anything else went wrong. Goddess’s it hadn’t been a good day thus far. 

“I’ll be right back Princess- please don’t move” Link had murmured right into her ear, so no one would hear her title, and then disappeared from view. No wonder she hadn’t seen him in her study, the man was the definition of stealthy. 

She had listened, for once, and hadn’t moved. (This wasn’t because the trembling knees had forced her hand into obeying or anything but because she’d actually wanted to) He’d returned with a spicy elixir, which she had gratefully downed in one go. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that the spicy elixir wasn’t really needed because his body warmth had been sufficient. It was then her gaze had fallen on his bleeding arm and she’d felt incredibly guilty. Not only had her legs betrayed her own self-respect but they had forced her to agree to Link’s offer of carrying her, _despite his arm bleeding out_. Thankfully, he had bandages on his person, in his standard equipment pouch, and luckily there were no shards of glass embedded in his skin. At least she wasn’t guilty of pushing glass deeper inside his body. She cleaned the wound out with water and then the antiseptic cream he had, and wrapped bandages around them, and tried to cover up the bloodstains and fix up his Sheikah Armour over it. It was a pity she forgot her own first aid kit; she didn’t have her emergency needles and thread with her, or she would have made a quick job of sewing the ripped seams back together. As it was, his arm did not look bad- the bandages were more or less covered by the design of the amour he wore anyway, no one could really tell it was slightly thicker. She then told him of her horse travel plan- and he seemed glad they weren’t going back to the station and had left her, very begrudgingly but still. 

And now 10 minutes later, Link was returning, he was smiling at her, and Zelda felt the same warm fuzzy feeling she had when he was carrying her. You know, maybe she didn’t need the distraction of technology. Her own body was baffling her, and she didn’t know how to make it better. It didn’t feel bad or anything, but Zelda never liked not knowing what was going on. Did she want it to stop though? Not entirely. And that confused her even more.  
  
Link’s POV  
Wetland Stable 6:45 am

Link had come to the conclusion that nothing else could surprise him enough after today. Just 2 hours ago he had unceremoniously dumped the Princess on his shoulder, and now 15 minutes ago, he’d carried her bridal style into a stable. 2 hours ago, he had been a trainee Knight, with little chance of being in close contact with the Princess, and now he’d held her up close twice- once whilst protecting her from fragmenting glass and the second when he’d pulled her to him whilst carrying her. He felt a small twinge of guilt over how enjoyable it had felt, how right it had felt to protect her and care for her in this way, but then cast that aside. It wasn’t like he’d be confessing that to anyone, ever. 2 hours ago, he’d been thinking the biggest thing in his life thus far- his 5-week Exam would finally end, and he’d be able to sleep in and relax. Barely 15 minutes ago, he’d accidently slipped into a power nap and awoke to hell. 

Goddess’s above he hoped Zelda never had another one of those awful attacks. She had gotten frightfully pale and even the spice elixir he had given her hadn’t helped. Well yes, she had been blushing the whole time he had carried her, but she’d been so cold to touch- almost like she had been frozen simply by looking at the ice arrows. And no elixir could fix that haunted look that remained in her eyes, long after he’d calmed her down and carried her to safety. Link felt an uncomfortable tug on his heart, he felt guilty and terrified about how he didn’t know what to do to help her, and that it would inevitably happen _again_ , and she would suffer and be tormented _again_. Link pulled himself out of that thought- there wasn’t much he could do- he would try his hardest to help her whenever and where-ever he could. He suddenly had a fleeting thought- when had Zelda come to mean so much to him? Yes, she was the Princess and as a Knight he was sworn to protect the kingdom and by definition her but… That particular thought would lead to potentially going down a rabbit hole, so Link needed a distraction. Pronto. He spotted a left-over green flag, made to celebrate Farore’s day 2 weeks ago, slumped across a bale of hay. Link decided to take a quick minute to thank Farore that he’d managed to pull the Princess out of the panic haze she’d fallen into, and that he had gained the Princess’s trust and respect. He hoped she’d forgiven him for his past transgression too, but he wasn’t certain of that one yet. 

He quickly found the stable master- hovering up and down the oak reception table. 

“Welcome to our fine stable! How can I, the greatest Stable Master available- Lawdon’s the name, help?” Without pausing he added, “You look like you could do with a good rest, how does a private room, furnished with a soft bed for a mere 20 rupees sound?”, Lawdon smiled as he made his seemingly generous offer, his ribbon-tied hair swaying in time with the wind. 

Link wanted to openly scoff but that would be rude. 20 rupees!? Did this guy think money grew on trees? That was a third of his father’s monthly salary after tax and Link couldn’t imagine wasting it on a bed for 12 hours. He coughed, “I do not need a bed, Sir Lawdon, rather I’d like to ask if you could transport two of my horses via the magnesis cart from Hyrule Castle Stable please? I need them as soon as possible, so I will pay extra for within two-hours delivery.” 

Lawdon’s face fell slightly when he realised Link wouldn’t be paying for his fancy bed, and then he nodded his agreement, “I will have them delivered as soon as humanely possible, I assure you sir. If you could fill out your name, names of the horses, their general descriptions in this form, and pay a fee of 7 rupees which includes fast delivery, if delivered faster you will potentially pay an extra 2 rupees.” Did this guy not need to pause for breath? He whistled over a stable boy, after screeching “AMI!”, and started giving him instructions to go to Hyrule Castle Stable. “Please, make yourself comfortable,” he directed towards Link as he whisked the form away from him (spirits he'd only just finished signed his consent!) and gave it to Ami, who promptly sprinted to the cart nearby and maxed out the stasis push with the magnesis linking kicking in and the cart soon disappeared from view. 

Link sighed, he hadn’t had a chance to ask about faster delivery because surely anything faster would harm the horses? After paying out the 7 rupees, he realised that was pretty much the entirety of what he had been carrying with him that day. He shuddered, and suppressed a bout of fear over his father finding out he had blown his allowance. And that sent him down another depressing spiral, what would his father say over him _abducting the Princess, falling asleep on duty, and carrying the Princess around like a lover_ , to list a few of his… many actions today? Link coughed, literally shook his head to get that thought out, and he headed back inside, the ceiling fans starting to hum to life as the day began, and the heat kicked in. He smiled at Zelda, she looked happier and her eyes had regained some of the shine they’d had before the ice. 

She inhaled a small breath and then burst out, “Did you get the horses then? When are they coming? Did they use the cart system? Or are you catching some wild ones? Ah I guess there wouldn’t be many wild ones hanging around a stable anyway, too many people would just tame one. Actually, that’s a good question- where do wild horses congregate? Apart from the literal answer, _in the wild_.”

Link chucked, “Will you give me a chance to respond your highness?”. He was so glad that she was feeling better, and that she’d regained some of that fire he’d seen when she was having a verbal war with The Commander, that he’d forgotten his manners when speaking with royalty. This was Link’s issue with words, they couldn’t be taken back and a single mistake could cost so much. 

Zelda blushed, “Sorry- I get distracted.” _**SEE you messed up with words again. When will you learn?**_

“Never apologise Princess! I didn’t mean to shame you; I think it’s great to be curious.” He smiled to show his sincerity (or so he hoped), “To answer your questions: I did request my horses to be transported from the Castle Stable, they are arriving within two hours, yes they used the cart system- it’s much like the train actually, just less fancy, no I didn’t catch wild ones because its true there aren’t any nearby- probably for the reason you said. In my limited experience, wild horses tend to be located in remote fields- typically with some sort of lake nearby. But no one tames wild horses as such anymore- we all just go to a Ranch and buy trained ones instead.” Link huffed, that was the most he’d spoken in a while. There was another fleeting thought- he never spoke this much normally. Why was he suddenly using his vocal cords? Zelda looked shocked. Did he say anything else he shouldn’t have? Spirits _this is why you don’t speak Link. APOLOGISE before it gets worse. And then don’t say **anything else**_. “I’m sorry if I said anything that offended you, Princess. I didn’t mean…” 

“No no- it’s not you. Well technically it is, but not because you’ve done anything wrong- it’s just, no one really entertains my ramblings. Most only half-listen, and you’ve gone and answered my questions.” Link was surprised- who wouldn’t want to talk to the Princess? She was obviously very smart. “It’s not rambling Princess- you’ve just got a curious mind is all.” He paused, “We’re all curious about things, Princess, you’re just brave enough to say them out loud.”

Zelda smiled in response, and neither said anything for a while, a companionable silence enveloped them. 

Until Link’s stomach rumbled. 

He had blushed and apologised again; Zelda just cackled in response. Great, he couldn’t even appear serious (or smooth) for once. After asking the Princess if she’d like anything to eat, she’d mumbled fruitcake and tried to reassure him that she was fine, and he should find something he preferred seeming as he was the hungry one. Link had ignored that command, because he wasn’t a very fussy eater – anything would satisfy him, and he’d rather make the Princess happy. He instead set about trying to sneak his way into the kitchen and use the cooking pot. He grabbed a mop from the cleaner’s bucket, conveniently located just outside the kitchen, and whilst pretending to clean, (why did this disguise always work- was it because no one ever bothered to look at cleaners?), and he located the cooking stove. 

Link obviously already had all the ingredients on hand to make the fruitcake- because he was _always_ prepared with regards to food and it wasn’t hard to cook a cake relatively quickly. Within 15 minutes he’d been back with the Princess, and the cake had effectively disappeared a few short minutes later. The look on her face had been worth it though, she’d looked blissfully peaceful, and that disturbed gaze in her verdant eyes finally went away. She had icing smeared across her lips and fingertips and he probably looked the same because it had spurted another round of giggles from her. She’d fished out the handkerchief The Commander had refused and offered it to Link. He wasn’t going to pretend to be macho like The Commander had been trying to, but if the Princess only had one then he wasn’t going to use it. She’d shaken her head- and pulled out another, “One must always be prepared Sir Link. The way you are with food, or more specifically perhaps, cake ingredients, is how I am with technology, and playing around with gears and the like results in oily fingers which are not in Princess Vogue.” So now, he had her handkerchief, and he put it in his breast pocket. He offered to return if after cleaning it and she had denied. Unbidden another thought rose in his head, _how are you going to explain this one to daddy dearest Link? I just happened to come across a handkerchief embroidered with the Princess’s initials and the Royal Family Emblem?_ Well, he’d cross that hurdle when he came to it. Clearly fruitcake was comfort food for Zelda, and he filed that information away because if the need arose again, he would make it again… and again for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do not be like Zelda and get help if you need it!  
> As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our duo finally reach Hateno, but the surprises don't end.

Zelda’s POV

Outside Wetland Stable- on the trail. 7:57 am

The wind whipped through Zelda’s cape, and she took a deep breath in, steadying her nerves. A few minutes ago, they had heard a distant scream outside- it had echoed alarmingly in the mostly empty stable, and it was followed by a grating of metal on metal with a sort of yapping noise. Link had immediately jumped over the sofa, sword in hand ready to face whatever it was down if it entered the stable. He had glanced over at her- probably wondering how they would move away at a decent pace considering she was still recovering. But Zelda didn’t want to slow them down- if something was coming, she’d rather they face it head on and get rid of it. And she had brought her bow dammit, she was going to show Link she wasn’t useless and perpetually terrified of monster attacks. He’d been adamant she was to remain inside, “safe” because he first had a duty to protect her and he wouldn’t risk her safety just to eliminate some monsters. But when she’d stressed that if the monsters ran into the stable then not only would they potentially harm her, but everyone else in the stable- and he’d be outside which meant he wouldn’t be able to see what was happening and how would he protect her then? And the grating of metal meant the cart was probably out of control- something was wrong on the tracks- and there were only so many places one person could be. She could help- she was feeling much better anyway. 

Evidently Link wasn’t used to be bombarded with so much logic, and he reluctantly agreed, casting fugitive glances her way as though he was hoping she’d somehow change her mind. He’d soon learn just how stubborn she could be. He had helped her walk outside; Zelda was very pleased to note that her legs had stopped acting as jelly, even if they still didn’t feel 100% stable but she wasn’t going to reveal that fact anytime soon. Link had warned her in no uncertain terms that whatever it was, she wasn’t to go in head-first- he would do that, and she would cover for him. She’d agreed because that wasn’t really her style anyway. Zelda would much rather been on a roof and shoot arrows down at unassuming enemies that be the focus of battle. That and she didn’t have a shield and it would be really idiotic to run into battle without one. 

In the distance, Zelda could start to make out the metal cart that was hurtling towards them, almost out of control on the tracks. Attached to it was the horse box, and it looked quite unstable, swinging slightly side to side. But that wasn’t the biggest issue- a black bokoblin was sitting astride on a horse, wringing its dragonborn boko club around in circles, aiming at the poor stable boy in the driving seat. That, and there were at least three red bokoblins that she could see on top of the horse box- they were whacking it with their boko clubs. At least the red ones hadn’t yet realised what the black one had known- there was a poor stable boy without any armour or weaponry at the front of the horse box, on the cart. He did have his slate though, but that would only have the standard civilian- issued rune magnesis and also stasis as he was part of a stable. But magensis was currently in operation to keep the cart on the tracks- it wasn’t like he could switch to stasis. 

Zelda was also worried for the horses inside- she wasn’t a fountain of knowledge when it came to horses, but she at least knew that when transporting them, the vehicle should not be swaying up and down like a yoyo whilst being bashed by monsters. She herself was already feeling travel sick just looking at the box, she didn’t want to imagine what condition the horses would be in, inside that contraption. 

Link had wasted no time, he had already hopped onto his shield, and was… surfing? On the grass fields? Zelda wasn’t sure what the right verb was but he was mounted on the shield like it was a surfing board used in Gerudo Town to ride the sand seals, and he had already primed his bow with bomb arrows. He leapt into the air- the shield was somehow still connected to his shoes and aimed for the black bokoblin, and a fiery explosion erupted from its head. Unfortunately, that move also lit its dragonbone boko club on fire too. Whilst still in mid-air, he refocussed and shot two basic arrows in succession at the red bokoblins on the train, in the head, effectively killing them, and as he was dragged back down to Earth- he grabbed his slate and used stasis on the last one. Zelda could glimpse out the corner of her eye - the small stable boy had already fled, thankfully he was unharmed after jumping off a moving cart, and he was now running as fast as he could into the stable. 

But Zelda wasn’t looking at the red bokoblins or the stable hand anymore, she’d already spotted the black bokoblin, now enraged, charging after Link, and she slotted in an arrow into her Bow of Light, aimed and shot it right in the head. Well, she had aimed for the head, her arms obviously weren’t fully functioning yet and instead it hit it in the chest, but hey. Maybe that hadn’t been the smartest idea though, because now the black bokoblin turned its focus on her. 

Whoops. 

She wasn’t in any condition to run, it was proving a challenge just to walk, and Link was still fighting gravity so… 

She did the only thing she could, restrung the bow and pulled another arrow, this time however, she missed. 

Spirits it was one thing aiming at something running in one direction and wholly another when it was charging right at you. Her fingers were already slick with sweat, and she was still trying to get her stupid limbs to function. Taking a deep breath, she slot another arrow in, aimed and shot, just like how The Commander had taught her. Take control of your emotions, refocus your breathing and then shoot. This one hit its arm. Well that was better than missing entirely, at least. The bokoblin was hobbling towards her now, it couldn’t really swing around its club anymore, its other arm had more or less disintegrated to dust, so every swing it tried to make was unbalanced as a result. But it was nearly upon her, and Zelda needed to buy at least a few seconds- there simply wasn’t enough time to shoot again, the distance was too small for her to pull the string back in time. She saw Link running back towards her, and she quickly pulled out her slate and used stasis. She’d actually never used stasis to freeze monsters before, monsters just weren’t a common occurrence, and as Princess, she wouldn’t ever be in the battle ground with them. Zelda couldn’t help but be fascinated at how even its expression was frozen. Maybe she could even study monsters with it! She couldn’t ponder for much longer though, the bokoblin had broken free. Link, however, was prepared and rammed his sword straight into the black bokoblin’s head. He had somehow disposed of the last red bokoblin, she had missed that part, and now the black bokoblin was also dead. It puffed into a mist of black tinged with magenta smoke, currying the air with a charred flesh scent. He glanced at her, smiling, and she didn’t miss how he did a quick scan over her injuries. “Princess, are you alright?” She nodded, and then he knelt down, picking up the monsters parts, and he blurted out, “And, um, can I look at your bow later, please?” she was taken aback by the randomness of that question but nodded again. Perhaps he hadn’t seen such a weapon before. Maybe they could do some exchnage where she could look at the writhing bokoblin guts. 

Meanwhile, the Stable Master looked up from his ledger, having ducked down behind his granite table as soon as the fight had broken out. He looked horrified. Link didn’t pay him any attention, he was already on the move, shield surfing again to reach the cart, which was now careening wildly, and with the stable boy absent, there was no one controlling it anymore. He pulled out his slate and used stasis on the cart. Everything froze in time, and Link hit the front of the carriage once, and when stasis ended a few seconds later, it had come to a complete stop. 

Whew, Zelda took in a deep breath, trying to compose her frayed nerves. She wasn’t sure just how much more action she could deal with today. Link meanwhile had pulled open the doors of the horse box open, and one horse- a dappled grey from what she could make out, had literally bolted across Rebonae bridge into the nearby Applean woods. 

Zelda began to run towards the carriage before realising running wasn’t very easy. She sort-of hobbled, trying-and-failing to speed walk, behind Link. She wasn’t fully feeling her legs yet, and in all honestly all she wanted was to go to sleep, especially after that black bokoblin had taken out what little adrenaline she had left. But that wasn’t an option and she’d already convinced Link she would be fine walking and she wouldn’t backtrack from that now. He looked aghast in the direction the horse had off too, and the remaining chestnut horse wasn’t behaving too well either- it was rearing up on its hind legs and looked very agitated and restless. Zelda hoped that the horses weren’t harmed too much and that the remaining one wouldn’t bolt. Goddesses this day had been merciless thus far, but if Link lost both his horses too then it would only get infinitely worse. Spirits how would he able to chase after horses seeing as she was in no condition to speed walk let alone run, and he wouldn’t able to leave her behind. And horses weren’t exactly the cheapest commodity to lose. Also, then going to Hateno for the day would be impossible- by the time her horses arrived it would be too late to even bother going. And she couldn’t very well walk all those miles to Hateno. 

Link had finally recovered from his shock, and he pulled down the head gear off the chestnut horse, and set about removing the outer gear, hugging the horse’s head to his chest, with one hand wrapped around their neck and the other palm on their nose. She could see his mouth move but couldn’t make out what he was saying. He looked traumatised and Zelda wasn’t surprised, he obviously cared a lot about people- spirits- he had carried her around despite having bleeding arms, and it wasn’t hard to see that extend to animals under his care. 

He slowly brushed his hand through the horse’s mane, and after repeating the entire routine again, Zelda had finally reached them. Link grabbed an apple from his pouch and slowly fed the horse, leaving his hand flat against its nose whilst he did so. 

Now that she was closer, she could begin to appreciate just how beautiful his horse was. She was a chestnut mare, and was obviously very strong, her white mane blowing through the wind. She looked proud, almost, an emotion Zelda hadn’t ever associated with a horse. The skin above her hooves also had a similar white shade- like little boots! Zelda got a distinct vibe of Look, Appreciate, But Don’t Touch. She had calmed down now, even if the same couldn’t be said for her master. Link looked at her, asking for her hand, and he placed it along the mare’s nose, “This is my horse Zelda, her name is Epona”. 

Epona didn’t move – either to kick her legs back in anger or move her head towards her so Zelda guessed that was a good thing? It felt like some sort of test that she’d thankfully passed. “Will you be ok staying with her? I will go after Luna- the dappled grey that you saw ran off. Epona here didn’t kick at you, which is pretty much as far as her acceptance goes- so you’re safe with her, don’t worry.” She nodded, although Zelda was still feeling slightly intimidated by Epona. “Look after her for me, Epona.” 

And with a fleeting smile her way, he was gone, climbing up (it wasn’t really climbing though because he was literally jumping from one handhold to the next) the two-storey stable, and then launched himself off the wall, paraglider out and heading to the forest. After watching his little show, Zelda finally understood what he had said. He’d asked _his horse_ to look after her. A _HORSE_. It wasn’t that Zelda didn’t appreciate horses, she did, she could even tell that Epona seemed smarter than most of their kind, but she still felt somewhat insulted that he’d thought her so inept and pathetic that even a horse could do a better job protecting her than herself? Did he just forget what she’d done with her bow?! What was it with men assuming she needed _protection? First her father, then The Commander, and now Link._ Zelda was fuming, she could very well storm off on her own to Hateno. 

But then, Epona snorted, nudging her head into Zelda’s shoulder, looking at her as though she could read her mind and guessed what she had been thinking. And Zelda felt something inside her soften. She couldn’t take out anger directed at Link over Epona. She reached up and stroked Epona’s chin, who responded very well, she ducked her head down and started to sniff Zelda’s hands. Perhaps she could smell the remains of the icing from the fruitcake that Link had made for her. “I don’t have any sugar cubes, sadly, Epona.” She couldn’t abandon Epona especially after the trauma the poor horse had just been through, and deep down, she knew Link probably didn’t mean it that way and he’d been trying to keep her safe whilst he went horse-calming. And she couldn’t really ignore the fact that technically one hour ago she hadn’t even been capable of standing on her own two feet. 

The Stable Master approached, very cautiously, with his ledger still out in front of him. Did he think it would work as a shield if any monsters still remained? Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. 

“Have they all left? Is it safe now? Where has that strapping young man gone? Maybe I should hire him for defence of the stable- he sure as hell didn’t run away like Ami.”

What? Zelda was still feeling vestiges of anger, and now those tendrils had found a new target. There were so many things wrong with his comment, her brain reacted by breaking it down logically:

a) Did this man honestly think a young boy without amour, who was no older than 10 and should have been in school, be in charge of protecting a horse box and cart?  
b) And did he just disregard the fact that he, himself, had been hiding under his solid granite table whilst everything had played out?  
c) Also, Link was currently _her_ knight- ahem- a Knight of Hyrule and would act within that (and get paid more but anyway she wasn’t saying that because that would seem rude as _obviously the Princess has more money_ ). Technically he hadn’t taken his proper oaths yet, but why would someone spend 5 weeks taking an exam, with years of training beforehand, and pass it only to decide protecting some random stable would be better? Why did this bother her so much? A few minutes ago, she’d been contemplating ditching him.  
d) And this man had just completely ignored her whole role in the past 10 minutes. Why didn’t he want to hire her? She had done just as decent a job. Ok, she hadn’t completely taken the black bokoblin out, but really, considering her day thus far, she’d done a good job. 

“ **We** have disposed of the monsters, yes. That _strapping_ man, as you so eloquently put it, is _my_ protector, he already has a job, so he doesn’t need **yours**. I have some important questions for you, sir, why isn’t Ami in school and didn’t **you also hide** for the duration of the fight? And you’re a grown man, you could have easily helped out.” 

“Uh, I, Stable Master Lawdon, mind the table miss. I don’t… fight… Ami is actually, um, well, he and his brothers turned up one day at the stable looking for work, and I didn’t have the heart to turn them away. His brothers are both away right now, so I needed Ami here to help me run the business. He takes the video classes sent on his slate though ma’am- I wouldn’t deprive a child of their education.” 

Zelda nodded her head in response, she felt better now. Everyone deserved the chance to study and the slate had made remote learning feasible considering not everyone could go to school 9 am to 4 pm everyday if they had a family trade. 

A silence- not entirely uncomfortable though, descended upon them. 

She spotted Link on Luna’s back, cantering across Rebonae bridge to the stable. He reached them, murmuring to Zelda, “And this here is Luna- she’s technically our spare horse. You’ll be riding her- she’s calm, docile and more accepting to strangers, but she has a tendency to flee when overly scared. He rubbed Epona’s head, whispering, “Did you behave for Princess Zelda?” and she literally snorted in response. Well this horse was clearly a cut in intelligence above the rest. Zelda already possessed a healthy dose of fear and admiration of her. 

Link turned to Lawdon, “What exactly is going on? How did your stable boy ride into a camp of bokoblins? 

Lawdon huffed out a sigh. “I am not sure myself, Master Link. Perhaps Ami should tell us what really happened.” And with that he screamed “AMI!” And the poor boy showed up, looking fearful, gripping his stool with both hands. “What happened son? Why were you being chased by monsters?”

“No one ever allows me to go anywhere! This was my first trip out alone and I wasn’t expecting any monsters, let alone four of them- they just came out of nowhere. I reached the Castle Stable, got the correct horses, but but when I started the journey back… About two-thirds of the way home-” Ami started to cry, and Zelda felt her heart break slightly. 

She bent down and scooped him into her lap, wiping his tears with her fingers gently. “It’s ok Ami, it’s not your fault.”

“They just-just suddenly appeared and started to hit the carriage and I didn’t want to die! Or to let the horses fall into their hands, so I just sped up, way past the limit, but they wouldn’t stop. They just… kept on coming.”

“You didn’t ask the monsters to come did you?” He fervently shook his head back and forth, “So then you are not to blame ok?”

Link patted Ami’s head and gave him a small smile. 

Lawdon sighed, flicked Ami’s cheeks and told him to go back inside. Facing them both he sighed heavily. “Business has really slowed down lately since the monsters have cropped up- like this time with Ami, there have been stories of similar attacks with random monsters popping up like a game of whack-a-mole. There never used to be so many roaming around and people have been more hesitant with travel. Believe it or not, you are the first customer we’ve had in three days to transport horses! 3! But this has had other knock on consequences- my stable has always been busy, and this lack of customer’s had really put a dampener in our monthly earnings. That combined with the new renovations we had means I am… falling heavily behind.” 

Zelda felt the need to say something in response to his financial worries. But she couldn’t ruin her disguise. So, she made a mental note instead- she would try to raise this with her father and see if they could do anything to help out the stables. Perhaps they would have to increase the number of knights they sent out to remove the growing monster camps. The most worrying thing was the reports of increased monsters, however. 

Link answered, “I am sorry to hear that, Lawdon. You mentioned business has slumped because of more monsters? Whereabouts? Are they also riding horses like the one we just saw?”

“Yes- all around Hyrule Field- and apparently other stables have also suffered as a result. Rumours spread fast and hard as you well know, and no one seems to want to travel anymore.” Lawdon’s face drooped, “I did hear some hearsay about the monster’s riding horses but I can’t really verify these claims- I don’t leave the stable much.”

Right Zelda was already running late, she’d have to get Link to leave now, if they wanted to make it to Hateno at least somewhat on time. They could investigate monsters later, on the way back. That and the guilt over not being able to reveal her identity and promise to help Lawdon out was eating at her. Wait, designs could always be worked around. “I, um, have good contacts with Hyrule Castle Lawdon- I happen to work there sometimes. I will definitely send word of the rising monster attacks and your stable’s financial issues to the council and hopefully they can come up with a solution. I will come back in the near future with news. Having said that however, it is now time for me and my companion to leave.” 

Lawdon looked so relieved, “Thank you, my stable and I are forever in your debt! I never enquired your name, dear ma’am…” 

Spirits. Zelda hadn’t thought that through very well. There wasn’t anything she could do other than ignore it and move fast. “We will now take your leave. Thank you for your hospitality.” Zelda nodded through her cape, and then turned to face Link. He was already saddling up the horses, and once she had positioned herself next to Luna, he hefted her onto the saddle, with his hands on her waist, and once she was secure, he launched himself onto Epona. Within a few minutes they had already set down on the cobble-stone lined trial and were well on their way. Lawdon looked confused, but he nodded at them as they left. Zelda felt bad but she really didn’t want her father knowing she had literally stepped into the stable in a knight’s arms.

Luna was a dream to ride, this was easily the most docile horse Zelda had ridden. She automatically understood the faintest movement Zelda made, which was a great help seeming as her functional movement hadn’t yet completely recovered. She glanced over at Link- Epona seemed to be frustrated with something. 

“Is everything all right Link? Epona seems… flustered.” Zelda didn’t want to insult the horse, she felt like Epona was capable of understanding Hylian speech somehow after seeing her practically respond to Link. Maybe that sort of bond happened once you’ve ridden with a horse for a long period of time? 

“Nothing Princess, Epona just wants to canter is all. She’s a feisty horse this one.” Epona whinnied in response and flipped her mane. Spirits maybe the horse really could understand speech. “Stop acting like a drama queen, we are in the presence of actual royalty, behave yourself.”

Zelda laughed, much stronger this time compared to the last her last, “Maybe we should increase our speed, Sir Link. I for one, agree with Epona.” And that was the last thing either of them said for the next hour as they cantered through, laughing as they raced against each other (Zelda was well aware Link slowed down to let her win sometimes because otherwise they both knew Epona would have won every single time). They flew past the various islands in the Lanayru Wetland, before reaching the gentle Sahara Slope. Zelda could make out the glowing blue Sheikah Towers in the panoramic view across. The Sheikah had constructed the Towers in the last decade to act as a connection hub of watchtowers. There was always a team of “emergency responders” that included several medics on hand at each one, and they paraglided out in record time if they could see a distress signal in the tower’s vicinity or if someone had sent an emergency message via their slate. She'd looked over the numbers in her health and science course, and the introduciton had greatly helped to reduce mortality rates from acute-onset diseases. She looked forward again, spotting the Great Nucleada Peak, and that meant Kakariko village was in sight. 

They meandered through the village, quaint red lanterns hanging off small metal links in front of each of the houses, which were constructed of the familiar obsidian material, with swirls and the Sheikah Sign prominently carved out in a glowing, calming blue. Zelda was surprised though- the whole place seemed relatively empty. She wondered what exactly was going on- where were all the Sheikah? They didn’t dally, instead they progressed straight through and Zelda encouraged Luna to do a final sprint all the way down to Kakariko Bridge (she won that one, fair and square), where they finally slowed down for the remainder of the journey. 

Zelda hadn’t felt so alive in so long, the breeze flying through her cape, into her hair, she could feel each breath she took, as if it was in time with the land. It had been so long since she could just run free in the wild, with nothing to worry about. The rest of the journey had passed relatively quick- they made good time and entered Hateno Village around 12:30 pm. 

Link started to speed up significantly at the entrance, constantly surveilling. There couldn’t be monsters in Hateno right? What had him so on edge? “Link, what’s wrong?”

He looked startled (maybe he hadn’t guessed that she would realise he was being overly protective), and then sheepish. There was definitely a story here and Zelda would prize it out of him. “Nothing really Princess. Just…” 

**“LINK! LOOK OVER HERE YOU VAGRANT! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YOUR OWN MOTHER?! YOU DIDN’T SEND A LETTER TO SAY YOU WERE COMING HOME?!”**

Well. That explained a lot. Link unhurriedly got down from Epona, cast a glance to the heavens, probably to pray for his continued health because his mother was storming across a small quaint wooden bridge to face him, armed with a soup ladle and a pot lid. That was more weaponry than Zelda had. “AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME YOU WERE GOING TO BRING A GIRL HOME?” Oh no. No no no no no. She didn’t want to have Link’s mother attack her with a soup ladle. No, Zelda wanted to live another day thank you very much. Link looked mortified; a furious blush spread up across his cheeks as he glanced at her. Wait- how did Link’s mother know she was a girl? Everything was covered with the cape. 

“No mother, you’ve gotten it wrong-”

That didn’t seem to pacify her in the least, she ploughed on, “Have you forgotten **_everything_** I taught you after moving into Castle Town? Where are your manners - do not answer back at me!” 

She reached him, the ladle now in a standard en garde position that Zelda recognised. She prodded his arm with it, but Link made no move to respond, chuckling slightly instead at the sight. Perhaps this was a familial inside joke that she wouldn’t understand. 

But then she promptly burst into tears. 

“Link, it’s been _weeks_ since you last sent a message saying you were undergoing your exam and couldn’t come to visit. You _know_ how lonely I get here and here you are gallivanting around and you weren’t going to come to see me, no, you’d only come here on some Goddess-forsaken errand and you don’t have time to visit your poor mother anymore.” 

Link pulled his mother into a hug, patting her head gently. “Mother, I was going to come! No, I haven’t forgotten my manners I promise- I’m on a… um, trip right now but I would have come to see you, once I had completed it. And for the past 5 weeks I was undergoing the Knight Qualification Practical Exam and I passed!” He whipped out his sword and shield to show his mother, her eyes lit up. 

“I’m so proud of you! And I never doubted for a second you’d pass. Did the exam really take so long? And you still haven’t introduced me to mystery girl over there.”

Zelda had since gotten down from Luna, painfully slowly. She didn’t realise how awkward it was to lift her still-somewhat-unstable (how long was this even going to last?) right thigh up that high to finally reach the left thigh so she could attempt to jump down. She eventually just gave up and used her arms to help shift it over, and then the jump itself hadn’t been too bad. She lifted off her cape, and moved down her Sheikah mask, walking a few steps so she’d be beside Link. 

“This is the Princess Zelda Hyrule, mother. I was accompanying her to Hateno. Princess this is Eliana, my mother.”

Eliana looked startled, her face blanched, she hastily went down on one knee, soup ladle clutched to her chest. 

“Hello Eliana- please don’t kneel, I am not here in a royal capacity.” 

She raised, looking fearful, “I am so sorry for my early assumption Princess, Link rarely appears at home these days, let alone with a girl. I never meant any offense-”

Zelda laughed and lent over to grasp Eliana’s hands. “There is no need to apologise, you simply misjudged- I am not wearing any Princess attire after all, and you miss your son. I am not offended at all, I promise. If anything, it was very entertaining. You are quite skilled Eliana- no doubt Link’s inherited some of his gumption from you. I should also say- Link has been a gentleman for the duration of our trip- I can vouch for his manners, thus far.”

Link had remained beetroot red the entire time and then he let out a shaky breath, chuckling slightly.

Eliana smiled, and squeezed Zelda’s hands. “I don’t normally… Well usually my soup ladle remains for the soup, but well, as wife of a Royal Guard you do pick up something watching them train all day. I won’t delay you any longer, Your Royal Highness. Link is protecting you, yes? I just ask that before you leave, you come by. I will have something for Link to take back to Castle Town then.” She let go of Zelda’s hands and smiled at them both. 

Zelda felt a surge of guilt flood into her, she didn’t want to deprive Eliana of what was likely a rare chance to be with her son and no doubt Link would be made to stand outside anyway so he could very well spend the day down here with his mother. “Link is protecting me,” she directed towards Eliana, and then faced Link, “But if you want, Link, you can stay here- I will simply be in the building up the hill. I promise to come and find you, when it’s time for us to leave- around 5-6 pm or so?”

“If you don’t mind Princess, I will drop you off first and once I know you are safe then I will come back down.” He smiled at his mother, “You can give me all the chores that need doing then, mum.” Eliana looked like she might start to cry again, as Link gave her a parting hug. 

They led the horses into the small reserve Link’s family home had and before Zelda could take in any other details, they bid Eliana a hasty goodbye, and left, with Link falling into his 4 steps behind her. 

Zelda didn’t like the distance between them, it seemed to remind her of all the propriety and rules again, and she felt the suffocating blanket of expectations fall on top of her. Link had already begun to feel like a proper friend, he respected her, protected her, strove to help her, cooked for her, raced with her, all within 6 hours. Not at all like the court girls who claimed to do the same. Was it too much to ask for one friend who didn’t have ulterior motives and whose every move you didn’t have to carefully calculate, assess, and then determine if they were true or not? Perhaps she was being overdramatic, she did have, technically three best friends, but of those two were mostly down to her position and without that she doubted they would have formed such a friendship otherwise and the last was Akhirah. 

Was it too much to ask Link to also be her friend? A… true friend? Look at her, asking for friends. If that wasn’t Princess Privilege, she didn’t know what was. And that she supposed was where the crux of the problem lay. She was always a Princess first, and Zelda second. She always represented Hyrule first, with its booming economy, flowing cash reserves and numerous bounties, before she represented herself as a technology enthusiast and avid researcher. Everyone wanted to be friends with the Princess, few wanted to befriend the nerdy Zelda. It wasn’t Zelda’s fault that she wasn’t princess-y by nature, she’d rather have her hands marked with grime and oil from investigating gears, bolts and screws, than have the latest nail design with hand massages at the salon. She’d rather wear her old engineer overalls for comfort rather than a corset and blasted heels. She’d rather be cosy in her fluffy purple dressing gown, sipping hot chocolate with fruitcake whilst mulling over a new research paper, or even the latest fiction book, rather than dress up and go down to a ball. This wasn’t to say Zelda didn’t appreciate what she had. She knew she was lucky, she had a permanent roof over her head- no one could kick out the Princess after all (she discounted revolutions because Hyrule was a stable, prosperous country), three food courses as the standard meal, the ability to study what she wanted (well right now anyway, soon she’d have to focus more on governance and politics and she wasn’t particularly looking forward to that), her own room and ensuite… the list of her blessings was long. There were many things to be grateful for, and she was truly grateful for them, but she always came back to the last thought- diamond encrusted chains were still chains. 

They’d finally reached the lab, and as soon as Zelda had raised her hand to knock on the wooden door, Impa had opened it. Zelda should have guessed her shadow-warrior guardian would know when she had arrived. 

Impa nodded at her, “Princess you have arrived safely, I am glad.” Her eyes did a quick once-over across Zelda’s body. “Is that blood on your calf? Did you hurt yourself? What happened?” Impa’s eyes darted behind her, “Where are your Royal Guards Princess?” Her eyes narrowed as they focussed on Link. 

“Who is this? Why is he travelling with you?! And why is he wearing Sheikah Armour that’s ripped with blood stains?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I have two things to say:  
> First thank you for all your feedback in the last chapter, I promise I've taken it on board. And please continue to comment, I love reading them and replying haha. 
> 
> Second- Link's mother is not abusive- I want to stress that she is just an Asian mother. This is all based of my own Asian mother's reactions- if I ever ignored her or didn't talk to her for a while, the first thing she'll do is yell at me and then start to cry. And we all know the phrase "Don't talk back to me" this is like the standard response to anything you try to say against them. 
> 
> Ps: If anyone clocks the major landmark difference then you get a cookie. A virtual, covid-free one.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link gets interrogated but escapes whilst Zelda faces an onslaught of information.

Link’s POV  
Outside Hateno New Tech Lab, 1:15 pm. 

Somehow this frowning Sheikah lady was much more terrifying than The Commander. Any residual shame Link had about the Princess meeting his mother vanished, even when she’d prodded him with her soup ladle, or when she’d insinuated that the Princess was his… lover. 

Maybe it was something to do with this lady’s crimson eyes, with red warrior paint covering one of them, glinting with fury aimed solely at him. Link felt the tell-tale signs of fear start to churn in his stomach again. She scowled at him, like she was thinking of several torture methods she could use to extract anything he may have hidden. Link suddenly felt very vulnerable- an emotion that he didn’t often feel (well, with people he didn’t know anyway). He felt her eyes crawl across him, land on his damaged amour and it felt like restless crickets had crawled up through his trousers. He’d never felt such severe discomfort from a stranger just _looking_ at him before. Every glare she shot at him resulted in a repressed shiver down his spine. And the most alarming fact was that she’d immediately found out everything. How the hell was he supposed to explain to this fearsome Sheikah Warrior what exactly had happened in the past 6 hours without looking like a complete idiot/jerk/every-other-insult-word. Maybe his brain should just replay his Idiotic Highlights to her. 

“Impa, I appreciate your concern, but we’ve had a long journey to Hateno- maybe we could answer your questions sitting down with some tea maybe?”

Impa did not look appeased. Spirits, he wondered if she ever smiled. Still, she respectfully deferred to the Princess and nodded, standing aside to let Zelda in, and then stepping right up close to Link, her singular braid of hair almost hitting him in the face, when he decided to be brave and put one toe across the boundary between grass outside and hallway. After another thorough glare contest, ok at this point, it just wasn’t fair. Link wasn’t going to back down, he was terrified of the woman, but he wasn’t going to be walked over without a chance to explain himself. After an excruciatingly long minute, she gave him just enough space to finally step inside before she slammed the door behind him. The door literally reverberated in its hinges. You know, perhaps he should have taken up on Zelda’s offer to remain in Hateno Village with his mother, he could have avoided this entire debacle. 

The Princess plopped down with little decorum on one of the small wooden chairs that wasn’t stacked full of paper. Actually, now that he was inside, Link could appreciate just how many loose sheets were flying around. He felt a small pang of pain for the trees that must have been sacrificed to fuel this. 

The Princess was occupied in her own thoughts- her eyes flitted around the wooden framework, and then towards the nearest pile of papers and she suddenly stood up and flew to the opposite end of the room where some sort of technology machine was. It had a hole in its surface that looked like it could fit a slate though. “I see the lab is still under construction of sorts Impa? When are you going to get the obsidian material to build the walls proper? Is the Guidance Stone active? Why have you shifted locations?” Her emerald eyes shone with anticipation. Link felt something pull in his stomach that wasn’t at all like the fear from Impa.  
“First Princess, before we get into the lab’s peculiars, I would request you answer my questions.”

She coughed, “Ah yes, well Impa, I assure you I am fine, I did not hurt myself at all- that is actually Link’s blood- a droplet must have fallen onto my calf when I had my, um, back turned at some point momentarily. I did send a letter about my trip to father, but he must have not read his mail, so he didn’t assign me Royal Guards. Instead I, uh, bumped into The Commander when I was leaving, and he assigned Sir Link- a Knight- for my protection. As to why he is wearing Sheikah amour- why don’t you ask him yourself? Also, where is Akhirah?” Her distracted gaze flickered to the next stash of papers and she started shifting through them. He could tell she was nervous, and it was that obvious to him, someone who didn’t really know her, then he could only imagine how apparent it must be for Crimson Eyes. 

Impa’s glare had darkened by at least 10 shades when Zelda had called him by his name and had obscured further as Zelda progressed with her… story. So, she had cottoned on. To be fair, he wasn’t sure Zelda realised she had called him by his name instead of position. It wasn’t her fault alone though - she’d completely forgotten protocol, but hell, he had too. 

Impa rounded on Link. 

Dammit, he did not sign up for interrogation by the Sheikah. He swallowed. 

She raised an eyebrow. 

Link felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck. 

She raised both eyebrows. 

Spirits, what lie could he make up? 

He awkwardly cleared his throat that suddenly felt heavily constricted from his nerves, “As the, um, Princess alluded too- I have recently had the honour of becoming a Knight of Hyrule-”

“That is Princess _Zelda Hyrule_ to you Knight.” Impa jutted in. Whoopsie he hadn’t had any lessons in how to address Royalty properly because well, _he wasn’t a Royal Guard and he’d only just, as in this very morning, passed his Knight Exam?!_

At least he understood what Zelda was trying to do though, she didn’t want Impa to know more than was necessary. He was sure the Princess had her reasons, so, he wasn’t going to confess any of what happened. And then that awful thing happened where he was trying to not think of something, and all he could do was think of it. A flood of images of the Princess tucked away in his arms, him touching her hair (it had still felt so silky despite the circumstances), eating fruitcake together, racing their horses together, all flashed through his mind. He prayed that he didn’t look guilty, and that the Sheikah couldn’t read minds because if they could he (and Zelda technically but she’d get out of it) would be screwed to hell and back.  
Thankfully the Princess had given him a solid template to work from, he would just embellish some details. Although Link never did like lying, he would have to say white lies that just didn’t include the whole truth. 

He also didn’t miss the Princess jerking up at that barb, although she hid it well, pretending to just shift over to the next stack of papers. But Impa was no fool and she had also seen it, her eyes narrowed even further. Link felt like a pile of rocks had settled into his abdomen. 

“Yes, um, Princess Zelda Hyrule was then assigned to me to ensure her safety, and I am wearing Sheikah Amour because my father gifted me a set the night before and I wanted to try it. My father is in the Royal Guard,” he hastily added. If there was ever a time to sprout that fact, it was now.

“You’ve missed the part of the story of how you came to be bleeding.” Impa drawled, her hand hovering near her shoulder. It was then, that Link finally had the courage to look past her eyes, to her trademark Sheikah hat, and her ridiculously long white hair underneath said hat- (did it reach her knees?!), to see the massive blade edge jut out over her shoulder. His eyes trailed down the length of the sword. Spirits it was almost as long as he was tall! He’d never in all his life, considering he’d been exposed to a lot of weaponry over the years, seen a sword like that. The closest was a Royal Claymore- but it went past those dimensions too. Link felt his blood chill. He couldn’t afford to mess up here or he’d be decimated or beheaded. The latter seemed more likely, Impa didn’t strike Link as someone who’d waste time trying to chop someone into pieces. Why was he thinking of being diced? What was the question again? 

“I got injured, um…” Dammit. Which incident should he talk about? Or should he even say there were incidents? But he’d have to report back to The Commander… Hell at this point it would be easier to pick the stable because Zelda had promised she’d look into it. “It was during a fight at Wetland stable-”

“And what, pray tell, were you doing at Wetland Stable?”

Din, Nayru _and_ Farore. What was he supposed to say now?!?! 

“We stopped over to get horses, Impa. You know the trains don’t continue past Kakariko as often and it was easier to just stop and get horses for the rest of the way.” Zelda butted in, and he smiled gratefully at her.

Impa turned to Zelda, “Still- I thought you’d be excited to take all the trains you could.” Zelda shrugged her shoulders, and Impa turned back to him, and he sighed, his temporary relief was over. “Which horses did you get?” 

“I got my horses from Hyrule Castle Stable-”

“But you didn’t ride horses up here, did you? So, where are they?”

Dear Goddesses, she was relentless. But Link wasn’t clueless- he knew she was trying to get either one of them to make a mistake and then she’d pounce, like a maraudo wolf hounding and then attacking its prey. 

“My family home is at the entrance to Hateno-”

Impa deadpanned, “The Princess is now family then? For you to be taking her to your own house. Isn’t that severely unprofessional, _Knight_?

Well hell, if stopping by his house was already unprofessional then everything else he’d done would be considered downright unlawful, and he would be beheaded because of it. 

Zelda swopped in once again to save him, “It wasn’t his fault Impa- his mother happened to suddenly appear and it would have been rude for him to _ignore his own mother_. And anyway- they are technically his horses so where he keeps them is up to him. Actually, that reminds me, Li- Knight Link, you should go down and tend to them. I will be safe here with Impa.”

Link wanted to breath a huge sigh of relief, but he wasn’t about to give Impa the satisfaction of knowing she had skewered his insides. He was so glad Zelda had more or less dismissed him, because he answered to the Princess- she outranked Impa. He curtly nodded his head at Zelda, and took a quick step towards the door, ripped it open and literally jumped with his paraglider out and sailed down to his home. He couldn’t escape fast enough, and he could still feel a burning glare from certain pair of scarlet eyes shooting daggers at his back between his shoulder blades.

He circled around, just to check she wasn’t actually aiming daggers at him and was surprised to see Zelda standing at the rickety window frame. She gave him a wave, smiled and then dipped back inside. 

Somehow that reminded Link of how he had first seen her- as someone who he could never dream of seeing again, let alone talk to, untouchable and perfect. And now, after everything they had gone through, that wave and smile meant so much more- she was looking forward to seeing him again and he was too. But he couldn’t help feeling that they were back onto step 1 of whatever friendship path they had been on, and it was symbolic of how she was still untouchable. Because he’d have to face the truth, that after this trip, he’d have no excuse to be with her anymore. 

Link’s Family Home, 2:00 pm

Link had just finished the “quick” lunch his mother had made- creamy heart soup as the starter accompanied by his mother’s ranting- “You look like death Link. What is your father feeding you? Why oh, why, did he take you away if he cannot look after you properly. Men can’t cook. You are the only slight exception to that rule, because of _my_ instructions, and even you couldn’t cook to look after yourself-” and it went on in a similar fashion. 

The main course was crab omelette with rice alongside gourmet poultry pilaf and by that point his mother had progressed into, “And your clothes Link! Who told you to wear such figure-tight clothing! No one will respect you with your hair in that bun! Whoever told you to put knitting needles into your hair? Why are you dressed like a Sheikah anyway? Of course, they’ve done great things for the country- but you’re a Hylian-” And desert had been apple pie. He’d taken a massive bite, and then got a spoon to feed his mum some so that she’d finally stop talking. He knew she was just venting because she, in typical mother fashion, possessed a deep well of worry for him. Her eyes shone with fear, anxiety and love for him and he snuggled down into her lap, his legs half-across the next chair, and he told her he missed her very much, but he missed her food more. That had earned him a flick into his hair, and then she’d pulled it out of the bun she so hated and started to weave her fingers through his messy locks, massaging his scalp lightly. Link felt completely at peace. He felt so safe, enveloped in his mother’s arms. 

And he now was feeling incredibly drowsy. 

The bone-tired fatigue he felt from this never-ending day plus a _really_ full stomach made Link just want to crawl into his bedroom and flop on the bed, his mother continuing to stroke his hair, and not come out. Maybe ever. Eliana had taken one look at him, nearly falling asleep in her lap, and had all but shoved him into the bathroom, sitting him down and babying him. She took a piece of cloth and wiped down his face, took one look at his arm and had erupted into a screaming fit, “ _ **WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?!**_ ”, he’d responded with a hapless shrug, and she’d blown up, her whole face reddened and she looked ready to have yet another aneurysm rupture. 

Link had stopped keeping tally of the number of times he’d pushed his poor mother to her limits. But then he’d almost fallen asleep on the bath ridge, and she’d unceremoniously gave him a solid shake, fixed up his arm with new bandages, and dragged him over to his room, and told him to get changed, “No dirty blood-stained armour is going over my pristine bedsheets, no. You’re falling asleep in the bath so I can’t very well force you to have a shower, but _you will_ , by Hylia, change your clothes at least.” And once he’d _finally_ struggled out of the Sheikah Armour, it was now no longer his favourite, he put on his oversized Hylian Tunic which smelled comfortingly of his mother’s laundry detergent, but then he looked down and he realised she had it dyed red. He didn’t have the strength to question what else she had done to his wardrobe in his absence. She tucked him in, like he was four again, and placed a featherlight kiss on his forehead, whispering she’d be back later to wake him up. That was the last Link knew of, before everything blacked out and he finally fell into a deep sleep. His penultimate thought was, whoops he hadn’t helped his mother with the chores, and his last thought went to Zelda, the Princess, and he wondered what she was doing in the frail wooden building, and most importantly, if she was okay. 

  
Zelda’s POV  
Hateno New Tech Lab, 1:30 pm

Akhirah finally peeked out from a pile of papers just behind the Guidance Stone. “Has the foreign male specimen left yet?”

“You know Akhirah, that sentence, right there, is probably why you’re still single.” Zelda smiled, walking towards her and kneeling down to give her a hug. 

Akhirah burst out laughing, pushing her huge glasses up her nose, swiping ink across her face as she did so. 

“Perhaps the next invention should be how to use the Slate to write up reports easily. And maybe a place to save your documents because then you wouldn’t have ink stains everywhere and maybe, just maybe, we might see the floor of this building.” Impa shrugged nonchalantly, carrying in a tray with three cups of cool safflina tea. 

Zelda got out her icing handkerchief and wiped down some of the ink. Despite being 28, Akhirah had very much remained in a sort of tech bubble and hadn’t gotten the social skills pretty much everyone else developed by now. She had developed a crippling fear of meeting other people- she avoided anything involving social interaction and despite Zelda and Impa’s repeated attempts to cajole her out of her reclusive lifestyle, she remained stubbornly stuck to it. She preferred to live through others, encouraging Zelda to go out and “ _enjoy_ ” but she didn’t want those things for herself. In some ways, Zelda was glad for that, to have a friend who _really_ didn’t care about the outside world and had absolutely zero materialistic wants- Akhirah didn’t see her as a way to get richer, but actually valued parts of Zelda that no one else really bothered with. 

“Zellieee- we have so much to get through and you’re _so late_. But now I want to finish off the upgrade I was planning for the Journal Notes as Impa here, so kindly suggested. I had already written half the program for it- I just had to put in some form of encryption to stop everyone reading other people’s notes. Oh and-”

“Akhirah we do not have time for this- if you want, you go and write up your rune, meanwhile I will take the Princess through what we have been doing.”

And just like that Akhirah disappeared- not physically- she was still here in body, but her mind was no longer with them, her slate in hand, and she shifted over to the Guidance Stone and began typing. 

Impa shook her head. 

She turned to her projector, slotting her slate behind it and the first image was a map of Hyrule. On it were several foreboding skull signs. Zelda suppressed a shiver. 

“As you know Princess, the Towers were built initially to act as a rapid response centre, but actually, their height means we can now use them to detect signs of Calamity Ganon's revival- one of which is an increase in monster attacks.” Impa pointed at the skulls, “These are the locations for the past month’s attacks.” The picture changed, “And now we’re going through the weekly reports…” She flicked through another two pictures, “As you can see Princess- there have been around 5 new camps cropping up every day- and in an almost random order- the only pattern they follow is they mostly avoid the large cities and towns. About 70% of the camps are bokoblin, but recently some moblins and other monsters – even the odd hinox have been spotted in expanded volumes around Hyrule. A rise in monster attacks and an increase in their bravery are two clear potent signs that point to Ganon returning according to research I have undertaken.”

Zelda took in a deep, shuddering, breath. She knew Ganon was coming but hearing confirmation and signs that pointed to it happening soon was something else entirely. “Have there been any other signs?”

Impa looked down, at the floor, “Only one other key sign, Your Royal Highness. The fact that the Queen is no longer with us… and it is only your father ruling as King, with you, a Princess of Destiny, next in line.”

Warm fleeting moments with her hand in her mother’s in the Castle Courtyard filled Zelda’s mind, her heart clenched tightly, and Zelda fought back tears. Suddenly images of ice flooded back into Zelda’s mind. The ice arrows in Link’s quiver. The shattered glass. No, she couldn’t go into another panic fest, she had to maintain some semblance of control. Fight it Zelda! FIGHT IT. 

“Why is that a sign Impa?” She managed to whisper out, barely containing the sob that wanted to break free. For something to do, she grabbed her cup of tea and downed it in one long gulp. The hot liquid scalded her entire mouth and oesophagus, and through the burning painful sensation that brought, she managed to successfully distract her mind from painful thoughts of her mother. 

“It appears that before Ganon returns, in times past, it was often when the Kingdom had no Queen. You know of the legend of the Hero of Time yes? That Princess Zelda - the Sage of Time- her mother had also died. The same can be said for the Princess whose kingdom was covered in twilight, for the Princess who was at sea, and the ones that followed in the new land they had discovered. None had mothers alive at the time of Ganon’s return.” 

Zelda sucked in another breath. All of those Princesses… All had to fight for their kingdom without guidance of a mother. She remained quiet, and so did Impa. The silence stretched out into minutes, as the reality of what actually lay ahead sunk in and what the consequences would be. Her head slumped forward onto her hands. She had so many questions, but her throat had clogged up. One pressing question surfaced, and she found her vocal cords were functioning again. What did _Princess of Destiny_ even mean?

“So, what do I have to do?” Zelda raised her head, meeting Impa’s gaze. 

Impa’s face furrowed, and she looked away and then back towards Zelda, almost as if she anticipated the question but didn’t want to give the answer. If Zelda didn’t know Impa better, she’d have said she looked fearful almost. “I… I don’t know Princess. All I know is, all of those past Princesses, they all had some form of sacred powers from the Goddess Hylia with which Ganon was… locked away with. And they all had it from birth…”

Zelda felt her hope sink, fear enveloped her like an old friend. Fear of failure, fear of incompetence, fear of uselessness. But most pressing was fear of being powerless to save her people.

She stared at her hands- willing something, _anything_ , to come up. 

Nothing happened.

Her stomach had dropped to the floor, acid churned, burning her.

She didn’t have a mother. Or supposedly birth-right powers.

* * *

Impa had called for a break then, and she went out to the flimsy kitchen they had set up, and made Zelda a simple meal of Pumpkin Stew, and some fruitcake. Although Zelda hadn’t touched it, the fondant would make her feel even queasier than she already was.

That and she didn’t feel she had a right to it. 

She had no idea how to save her kingdom, it didn’t seem the right time to feast on cake and feel happy. 

She’d wrongly assumed that the power thing would be something they could build perhaps. The fortune teller hadn’t been very specific- she remembered the phrase about her role simply stated as “A power from the Princess”. Zelda had assumed that “power” was a relative thing, and she’d make some sort of weapon with the technologists and they’d blast Ganon to hell. She’d never entertained the thought that it would have something to do with the Goddesses. Impa hadn’t know much more, but she didn’t seem overly worried. Zelda was, however, because time was of the essence, and to find something she literally knew nothing about would be hard. She already planned to go visit the library and read up the old legends. Even if they wouldn’t be that useful because those Princesses’ had been born with their powers, she could at least attempt to trace back where exactly this power had gone missing in her own family line and try to salvage it. Zelda wondered what, exactly, those other Princesses’ had gone through. Perhaps they had other trials- and hers was simply to access the power and then apply it. In that context, simply finding the power didn’t seem so bad. 

Impa had slotted in the next picture- this time with another map of Hyrule- with 4 markers pulsing. 

“Princess- I know it seems like a shock and you feel woefully underprepared- but I have a plan of sorts to help. Yes, you might not have your sacred power just yet, but it could simply be that it will awaken at a certain time or age. You are young, and there is _still time_ until Ganon’s arrival. And we as a nation, are very advanced. We may just be able to weaken Ganon enough using technology and then preserve it in the weakened state until your power awakens. Of which they will- I have no doubts.” She paused, then knelt down in front of Zelda. 

“Not all hope is lost yet, Zelda, and I ask you to trust me, the Sheikah will always stand with you.” 

Zelda nodded, now was not the time to wallow in self-pity, just because things weren’t easy didn’t mean she would give up. Hell, her brain would now start to revolve around how to solve this unknown power situation. If Impa, a Sheikah Warrior, believed in her- not just as a Princess but herself, as Zelda, then she could at least try to do the same. 

Impa stood back up, “At these four locations- we have the Furnaces with the blue flame.” Impa slotted in an exemplar picture of a Blue Flame Furnace. “Of course, you know what these are Princess- and just how critical they are for maintaining our technology.”

Zelda nodded, she had always been fascinated by those as a child because only torches or weapons could hold the blue flame- nothing else could even if they were wooden and held near to it- it would just burn with a red flame instead of blue. Then she’d gone and researched into it and it turns out a blue flame was just a higher-powered fire than the standard red. Although why wooden weapons and not shields or crates could capture it, she still didn’t know. 

“Technically we should summon Akhirah now to explain more about it. I am loathed to admit it, but she does know more about our technology than I do.” Impa frowned, a pained look spreading across her sharp features.

As if she had been summoned from a ritual, Akhirah popped up, “ZELLIE gimme your slate I have upgraded the Journal Notes that the Slate always had and converted it into a Rune. Now, you can have your own private notes and it will now allow you to highlight, bold, italicise and colour-code any text in your note taking. Plus- and this is the most exciting- it will allow you to add pictures and videos onto it via a link to the Camera Rune! And it goes without saying that I’ve added the capacity to add folders in so you can be organised. This will be so useful to students, authors, anyone who wants to keep a journal.” 

Akhirah clapped her hands together, her eyes bright, and then held her arm out, fingers splayed, blinking rapidly. “I’m going to use your slate to try it out first and if the prototype update works, we can just submit it via the Guidance Stone onto the network.” Zelda passed her slate over and like a giddy child, Akhirah uploaded her rune and shoved it back to Zelda. It turns out the upgrade really was quite functional. 

“It’s actually very good Akhirah! I can already see how useful this will be. I hope this will revolutionise the writing world just as your Numeral Rune did in Accounts and Finance. Perhaps it could even help you cut down your paper usage.” Zelda smirked at the end.

Akhirah’s eyes sparked, and she opened her mouth to respond, probably with a retaliatory insult, before Impa coughed and pointed at the projection of the Blue Flame Furnace. “You’re always such a party pooper Impa. Fine, let me run you through this Princess, and then we can go back to discussing my non-existent over-usage of paper and the Journal Rune.”

She walked over to a stack of papers, rifled through, and found the one she wanted, making a show it. 

“As you know, the blue flames provide the energy for the smaller furnaces that we then use to activate the Guidance Stones, which in turn power and upgrade the slates. We constructed these Furnaces in specific locations- where there are **huge** underground power sources that allow the mass conversation of energy into the stronger blue flame.”

She shifted the projection back to the previous photo of the map of Hyrule. “See- we have four semi remote locations because we didn’t want anyone accidently coming into contact with the flame and you know, scalding themselves because people see blue fire and go OOOO I SHOULD TOUCH THIS. This is why we have created four New Tech Labs across Hyrule, close to a Furnace but not like next door, because we don’t want to be burned either. Now ask why, Zellie.”

Zelda couldn’t help but smile. “Why Akhirah?”

“Because it will be much easier to undergo construction with such a power outlet nearby. We will use the Blue Flame Furnace to power several Guidance Stones.” She paused for effect and Zelda nearly rolled her eyes over her dramatics, “We plan on making four Divine Beasts- these will contain 2 Guidance Stones- one for teleportation access, the other to access the map and some controls over specific movements of the Beast for fast access. But each beast will then have some form of mechanism inside to generate its own energy- we can’t have them immobile connected to a furnace constantly, after all. I have planned for around 4-5 Terminals all connected to a main control unit that will allow ultimate control over movement, functionality, upgrades, you name it, for each one.”

Zelda was astonished. She opened up her new Journal Rune and began to take notes. 4 DB- 2 GS + 4-5 terminals per DB. No wonder Impa had summoned all the Sheikah - this was huge! “But why four? How long will it take to make each one? Do you have design plans? And who will control them? What exactly will they do?”

Impa stepped in, “We choose four because it will be from each corner of the Kingdom- one for each great race of Hyrule- Zora, Rito, Goron and Gerudo. I am uncertain as to the exact timeframe of when we will complete the projects – but hopefully within a year most of them will be functional. We have vague ideas for designs, and who will control them, but I have another plan for that Princess.” 

Zelda quickly jotted that down, plus Hylians DB?

Akhirah butted in to answer the last question, “Obviously they will be used to fight Ganon Zellie! What a bad question. As to how they will attack, I am envisioning a red laser beam, Imps here wants white, but at least we’ve decided on laser beam.” 

Red White laser beam. Impa will always win.

“DO NOT CALL ME IMPS.”

“I’m the older sister, therefore, I can decide what to call all of the other children mother decided to have. I’m not sure why she bothered, if I’m being honest.”

Impa’s eyes had flashed dangerously again, and she had already started to huff out, “You-”

And then Zelda burst out laughing. She herself had never had siblings and seeing those two interact always made her simultaneously be grateful, that she was alone and didn’t have to put up with anything, but mostly it made her feel a little sad that she never had someone to tease and be teased by. 

Impa smiled, probably glad to see her happy again, and she moved over and swiped so the next picture came up- this one had four smaller pictures collated into one large one. The first showed the Hateno Hill they were on and Impa pointed at it. “We plan on building the first New Tech Lab here – it will be run by Akhirah and will be responsible for Sheikah Slate updates that we will inevitability need for each Divine Beast as well as rune upgrades. And we will build the Divine Beast for the Zora’s here because Zora’s Domain is… still in development and quite frankly I do not see it being completed in our lifetime. And as such, it is, at the moment, surrounded by water with limited flat land.”

Akhirah added, “And there is no Furnace there- which is unsurprising seeing as fire and water don’t mix- even a _child_ could tell you that.” 

The second photo was of somewhere in Akkala- Zelda could recognise the autumnal trees but that was about it. “This second Lab will be in the northernmost aspect of Akkala- it will be where Robbie, my brother, will be based. You’ve met Robbie before, Princess?”

Zelda nodded, “He was at the annual Technology Presents Fair – the last one, which was held in Kakariko. If I remember correctly- he was beside you _Imps_ -a for the duration of the event. He was interested in robotic technology, right? I think I remember him presenting a bionics arm. It was very interesting.” Akhirah cackled away and soon Zelda had joined her whilst Impa looked at them disapprovingly. 

Impa’s eyes narrowed, “If anyone here calls me Imps again, I will get revenge. Do not expect your Guidance Stone to be functional in the morning Akhirah, and I will inform the King about your lack of Royal Guards Princess.” 

That unveiled threat caused them both to become sombre and stop outwardly laughing, although Akhirah was still suppressing giggles and trying to pass them off as hiccups. Impa wasn’t fooled, but she moved on. “Yes, Robbie is interested in creating some form of autonomous robot which he will have programmed beforehand to aim for monsters- to deal with the growing infestation. He hopes to have a similar sort of laser beam- on a much smaller and weaker scale of course, otherwise it would be a waste of energy. They will hopefully walk across land, fly in air, and also be stationed outside key areas in Hyrule Castle – where we will most likely encounter Ganon. They will help to target at Ganon itself, and the monsters that will inevitably rise alongside him.” Zelda nodded, and wrote that down too. 

“The Goron Divine Beast, which will be stationed from Death Mountain, shall be built in the Akkala Tech Lab too, because it will difficult to make a Divine Beast in such scorching conditions.”

In so far, Zelda added: Hateno- Akhirah+ Zora DB, Akkala- Robbie – Robots + Goron DB.

The third picture was one in Hebra- “This furnace here is located very inconveniently under a mountain peak- on a natural ledge of sorts. But my sister- Purah-”

Zelda was so surprised she interrupted Impa, “But I thought you only had one sister- Akhirah and one brother- Robbie?”

Impa reddened, seemingly embarrassed and coughed, and Akhirah responded to that with a solid whack on her back. “Something caught in your throat Impa? Want some water? Maybe the Heimlich manoeuvre?”

“No- its- ah”

Akhirah suddenly looked very concerned, “Are you having a stroke? That’s the most influent I’ve ever seen you. But you’re only 25.”

Impa rubbed her eyes. Zelda wondered what exactly life had been like for Impa, living with Akhirah for a month. The poor girl was just so perpetually confused. 

“Nothing is wrong with me, Akhirah. I’m just thinking about how to explain my absentee sister to the Princess is all.”

Akhirah looked even more perplexed, and shocked that Impa would be struggling with something so obviously mundane to her. “I’ll do it for you then. Basically, Purah decided at the ripe old age of 6 that she wanted to grow up faster. She said she was tired of not reaching the bookshelves, and she couldn’t reach the Guidance Stones either. I personally think it was something to do with how she couldn’t bear to be so behind me and Robrob- we’d already gotten our slates – legally, age 12 mind- and had progressed quite far- I was one year from graduation with Degree 1 after all.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder, a smile on her face as she recounted, “She’s the last you see, the baby, and everyone treated her with delicate fragile hands. So, she seized one of the slates we had lying around, created some sort of ageing rune and applied it to herself. In the first day, she had aged to 17, my age- in one day she’d covered 11 years! We looked like twins!” Akhirah looked so gleeful. 

Zelda meanwhile was horrified- she also had so many questions. “But-”

Akhirah barely paused for breath though, “I’ve always wanted a twin. But then see, she started to age more. And more. And by the end of the week she’d hit about 80. You can’t really tell old peoples’ age past 70- all the wrinkles make them look the same. I figured there must have been a coding hole she had forgotten to close, but she wouldn’t let anyone see the rune she’d made. And after that, she moved away to some Hebra cliff I can’t remember the name of, and literally became a hermit. She’s now trying to reverse the rune I suspect - but with her arthritis I’d imagine it’s become difficult to travel to the Blue Flame Furnace, to ignite her own smaller one. We have tried to visit her several times, but she’s always kept the door locked and bolted and firmly denies our assistance. Which probably goes back to how, you know, she was the baby and wasn’t allowed much freedom. And how she wants to fix this herself without our help to prove otherwise.”

Zelda was still in shock phase, and said the first thing that blurted out, “But ethics? And if she had aged 11 years in one day, and then several other decades within the week, why did it stop? It couldn’t have been an infinity loophole otherwise she’d have become dust by now… Does the rune have a limit- maybe it ages you to the age you’ll reach when you die, and then freeze you there until you actually reach that age? I assume her internal organs also went through all those ageing changes- how did puberty – or wait menopause…” 

Impa had finally recovered enough dignity to reply, “We don’t know Princess- it all happened so fast. And it is unfortunate regarding how she’s locked herself away, but I believe Purah will be willing to do the right thing and use her technology affinity to help us build the Rito Divine Beast. Otherwise we will be running things too tight, time-wise.” 

Impa pointed to the last picture was in the Karusa Valley in the desert- Zelda recognised this one and she said as much, adding the last two entries into her notes. 

“Yes- Kohga, who is a renowned technologist will help make the Gerudo Divine Beast. Do you remember him Princess- when you had visited Akhirah to test the magnesis rune update that included linking - he had popped in to check everything was going smoothly? He had actually been heavily involved with the coding and had worked extensively with Akhirah over it.” 

“Yes- now that you mention it, his name is familiar. Was he obsessed with mighty bananas?”

“That sounds very much like Kohga.” Akhirah smiled, her eyes looked dazed- if Zelda didn’t know better, she’d even go so far as to say _infatuated_. 

Hm. Something was at play here. Akhirah didn’t smile about boys romantically. Ever. In fact, Zelda could count on one hand the number of times Akhirah had referred to a man other than her brother or father- it was once- just now. Hell, she even hid when Link had walked in. Zelda was stupefied she had even willingly worked with a man. Somehow, Zelda had forgotten all about Kohga, who had marched into Akhirah’s apartment in Kakariko- he had brough in a stack of bananas, which he had placed on the table and then left. She hadn’t though much of it at the time, but Akhirah certainly hadn’t hid from him. Hmmmmmm. She stored that information away and would grill Akhirah later when she had the chance. 

Impa was also pensively observing Akhirah. Perhaps she was having the same thoughts. Zelda created a folder titled “Plan Against Ganon” and added in the first note she had made, and a second “Miscellaneous” in which she created a new note titled: Akhirga? And another- Wetland Stable Finance. And a third- ~~Knight’s~~ Link’s Panic Attack Training?

Akhirah finally burst out of her Kohga-induced thought bubble (an idea Zelda wouldn’t ever have believed to cross her mind), and squinted at them both, “Did I say something wrong?”

When neither she or Impa responded, she shrugged and walked off, “And that’s the end Princess. I’m going back to my Journal Rune. Impa- yell if you need me again. And I said yell because we both know you are incapable of gentle speech with your older, and better, sister.” She glanced back, eyes focused on them again, “IMPS you forgot the Royal Tech Lab!!!!”

Impa gave a world-weary sigh, shook her head, “Well, we would have come onto it anyway but now that you’ve finally remembered something relevant for the first time in your life, we shall have to commemorate the occasion.”

Zelda looked up, “Yes actually- why are we planning to build a Royal Tech Lab when we are building four other labs? Also, I had another question- before Kakariko used to be the base for all technology-based works- what about that lab?”

Impa answered, “The Royal Tech Lab will be needed Princess- we plan on building five towers to surround the Castle- each will contain a store of the robotic machinations Robbie will build. An emergency supply if you will. And those towers will help ensure the calamity is contained- they will hopefully create some form of barrier that will stop any shocks or the like, from escaping out to general Hyrule. And we also plan on making the Royal Tech Lab an Elixir Production Centre- defence and attack ones mostly- for the general masses in Hyrule’s army that will be needed to take on the wave of monsters alongside Robbie’s automatons. And as to the base we currently have in Kakariko- everything will be shifted out. We need to relocate to the 5 smaller tech labs for now to build everything in time for Ganon- we cannot waste time shipping components across the whole of Hyrule. We will maintain the lab for the future- but as of right now it won’t be operational until after we deal with Ganon.” 

“But who will run the last lab?” 

Akhirah burst out laughing. “ **You** Zellie- I know I call you that, but you _are_ the Princess! Who else will run _The Royal Tech Lab_? You’re always fascinated with everything technology, give me countless suggestions- and good ones mind, and you also have a good eye for making elixirs. It’s the perfect role for you.”

Impa chuckled good-naturedly, “I will also help you Princess. You will be in charge of overviewing the construction and the elixir recipes and I will organise everything else.”  
Zelda was in awe. They trusted in her enough to run her own Lab?! “Thank you Impa, Akhirah, for believing I can do it. I promise to try my very best and not let you down.” She raised her arms up and all of three of them had a group hug, and then she grabbed her slate, added in another folder titled Royal Tech Lab. Akhirah tottered off again- smiling at Zelda as she went off. She still wasn’t very comfortable with hugs, evidently, probably too much personal contact. 

“Do you have any questions Princess- before I tell you about my plan regarding the Divine Beast design and Pilots?” 

Zelda did have one pressing concern actually, “You mentioned the Four Divine Beasts for each Great Race Impa- but what about the Hylians? Surely, they also deserve their own Beast? We cannot side-line one race over another. And the Sheikah too?”

Impa laughed, “Always thinking of everyone, Princess. The reason why the Hylians do not have a direct Divine Beast as such, is that they will be represented by a Hero- who will wield a special sword of sorts- I believe it is called the Master Sword that will deliver the final blows to Ganon, and you- with the sacred power, will seal the defeated Ganon away. I am thinking of creating one last Divine Beast for the two of you, although I’m not sure such a large and encumber-some structure would be useful, given that you will need to be able to move quickly and easily around Ganon. I think Akhirah and I will need to discuss more on that aspect- do you have any ideas Princess? As for the Sheikah- our technology is being used to build all of these structures, Your Royal Highness, and as Chief, I deem that to be sufficient representation.” 

Zelda nodded, but her mind was bursting with a million questions. “So, we should create a smaller, more mobile, Divine Beast. Perhaps some form of the magnesis cart but it obviously will have to be able to run on non-metallic surfaces…” She paused to think, jotting down some ideas in her slate ( _wheels- maybe two? But what would power it?_ ) but then she realised Impa had mentioned something about a hero? Who? “Impa who is this Hero? Where is the Master Sword? I’ve only heard about that in legends… Finding both seems almost akin a task to unlocking my powers. There are so many unknowns…”

Impa glanced up, “Do not worry yourself about the Hero, Princess. It is said that the Hero’s soul, fate and destiny are all entwined with yours. So, as the need to suppress Ganon arises again, his soul will have also reincarnated alongside yours. It’s just a matter of finding him. I have set about creating a certain set of challenges- a Hero Trial of sorts, to suit that very purpose- but don’t worry about those details- I will handle this part.” Impa sighed, “As for the sword, we don’t yet know where it is, but I have hopes once we find the Hero- the sword will follow because the blade is the one that chooses the Hero, so it will be the Hero’s duty to find it and wield it.” Impa reached over and sat down, “But even then, after we find the Hero, he will have to be trained. Similar to how you will have to find your power, he will have to learn how to properly fine-tune his skills.”

Impa slotted in the last picture in the slide- it was a sort of hooded version of a Sheikah house Zelda supposed- a covering made with obsidian material over a ring-shaped platform, with a small pedestal in front.  
“This is a Shrine Prototype Princess- we plan on building these across the country- the exact number hasn’t yet been determined but a ballpark figure would be around 120. Each will present a challenge for the hero mainly- helping them develop the skills they will undoubtedly need and help them finetune their abilities. Thankfully, I have passed the duty of creating said trials to the Sheikah Monks, so we do not have to worry about that just yet. Oh, and the pedestal will allow fast teleportation to the shrine- which will be useful in traversing across the kingdom quickly.”

Zelda was once again gobsmacked. Impa had been busy in this past month. “Are you going to dig 120 holes in Hyrule Impa?! And if you have all these Shrines planned for the Hero- what I am supposed to do? I know I will have to run the Royal Tech Lab but how will we, i.e. me and the Hero, develop any sort of working relationship, if he’s travelling across Hyrule? And how will you build all of these in time Impa? Is that why you summoned all the Sheikah? Plus- I thought teleportation was still in developmental stages. Have you already mastered it?”

Impa laughed, “No Princess- all of the shrines will be connected to the purified Astral Plane- the otherworldly dimension we had discovered and then adapted. It always existed alongside our own world- it’s a parallel reality, if you will. So, whilst we can generate simulations for what will happen inside the plane, add in puzzles and or monsters, the damage you sustain in that world will continue through to ours. We build the Arena with the same principles- a place to train. So technically, we won’t have to dig ridiculously far underground- just enough to create a connection to the plane- and then teleport the person- in this case the Hero, and you, in. I probably should have said this first Princess- but at least half of these shrines will test the two of you together- as you already deduced- you will need to be able to work together in a rather stressful situation and if you are well attuned to each other, it will make all the difference in the final fight.”

She paused, “And yes- that is why I have summoned everyone. We have to find your powers, conduct the Hero’s Trials, build 5 Technology Labs, plus all the Shrines and prepare for war in general. I needed all the help I could summon, to organise the foundations for the work we will have to do. Of course, nothing has actually started yet because we need approval from the King, but we needed to develop some sort of plan to present at the Annual Meeting. And you are right again Princess- teleportation has only just become available, hopefully Akhirah will be able to make the whole process safer and allow two people in one go. But that girl flits between projects and she’s now latched onto the Journal Rune.” 

Taking a deep breath, Impa continued, “This is my plan Princess. I believe you and the Hero must travel across the Kingdom, solving these shrines together to build confidence and trust in each other and simultaneously you both should help the populace with any issues they may have. That will help them see that you are giving your everything to the cause... And whilst the hero is doing shrines where you cannot fully participate- such as Strength shrines, you will be in each village, finding a suitable Pilot amongst the villagers to control their Beast, and asking what they villagers want from such a contraption- to find out what use it could potentially offer after the Calamity is… disposed of. You will also work with the Chieftains of each village to find out what structure the Divine Beast should be, the name for it, and the ideal location for it to be placed to target Hyrule Castle. And then, you will also help the relevant Sheikah Technologist on site with the overall construction. There is plenty for you to do alongside the Hero, Princess.” 

Impa smiled at her, “I have hope that in traversing the width and breadth of the country you are fighting to protect, you will awaken your power and the training the Hero will receive will ensure he is ready to kill Ganon.”

Zelda nodded, her head buzzing with ideas, as she added a final note to the end of her first _Plan Against Ganon_ proper document. 

_Do Not Fail_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter this week because its reading week yay! I had a lot of fun planning all this out, but I'm not sure if its too wordy...
> 
> Side note: I know that you might think the shrines are accessible to the Hero only because of Memory 5 (Zelda's Resentment) but:
> 
> \- We only have one slate in BOTW: what if it was only the Hero's slate that was preserved?  
> \- When you enter the Oman Au Shrine- "I am a humble monk, blessed with the sight of Goddess Hylia and dedicated to helping **those** who seek to defeat Ganon." I take 'those' to mean the Hero and Princess of the past, working together.  
> \- The Monks only have a present for Link when he completes the shrines but they obviously had to give one to Link 10000 years ago too (and maybe they had one for Zelda then as well hmmm)  
> \- Finally, I want Link and Zelda to travel together aha.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link wakes up late, but the outcome of that isn't so bad this time.

Link’s POV

Outside Link’s Family Home, 4:45 pm

Link’s mother had woken him up barely 5 minutes ago. He clicked on his slate to check the time and it was 4:42!!!! He needed to be up the blasted hill at 5! 

“Don’t look at _me_ \- you needed the rest, and technically you have more than enough time to get there- I’ve run up the hill in less time!” 

Link raised both his eyebrows at that bold statement, “Since when did you go running mother?” His mother had looked on, non-plussed, as Link had a mini breakdown, chucking random tunics to the side trying to find some trousers. Thank the Goddesses he spotted his Hylian trousers and some random shoes from his now severely messy wardrobe. 

She sniffed, “There isn’t much to do you’re not here anymore. And I’ll have you know, before you were born, I was very fit. Anyway, seeing as I now have the spare time, I run with the village women, it’s better than idle gossip anyway.” She came around and looked inside the chaotically strewn about clothes. “Young man, you better tidy this up when you get back. I refuse to sort through your tornado whirlwind.”

He hastily nodded and then literally stormed right out of the house, grabbing his sword and shield and strapping it on haphazardly. It was 4:45- there was no way he’d be able to sprint all that way in 15 minutes. He looked back, spotted Epona, and jumped on bareback, still fasting the damn buckles around his middle, and thankfully Epona caught onto his urgency and she’d fiercely responded, galloping onward to the top of hill. He could hear his mother’s receding voice in the distance, “Don’t forget to come back here before you go Link! I’ll be waiting!” 

He’d just reached the door, at 5:01, when Impa bustled out, with the Princess behind her. He’d quickly run his hand through his hair, cringing when he realised he had no hairband in, but he always kept a spare on his wrist for this very reason, and despite every hair on his scalp defying gravity, he managed to tame it down enough and tie it up. Impa’s eyes narrowed again, it seemed to be a permanent reaction to whenever she saw him. 

“Looks like you’ve just gotten out of bed, _Knight_. At least be professional next time and get a saddle for your horse- do you expect the Princess of Hyrule to ride bareback like a mongrel with you?” She shook her head, in utter contempt and promptly turned away, facing the Princess. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright travelling back with him? I can come- I have to be present for the meeting on Friday anyway- Akhirah can keep it together for one week.”

He felt icy cold, all of a sudden. Impa’s insults didn’t matter really- he couldn’t very well tell her he had literally no training in how to behave with royalty and she didn’t know he’d been awake for 20 hours in the past 24. It was more the reminder that he was so lowly, so unimportant, so _replaceable_. And that this whole day had been a dream of sorts- he could never aspire to be with Zelda again the way he had today. And from Impa’s words it immediately became obvious to Link how she’d had to lower her standards to his level. There had been plenty of times where Link had felt unworthy, and not good enough- most of those stemmed from his father, but somehow this hurt different. A mongrel he was. And no mongrel should be in contact with the Princess. He felt despondent, and he didn’t even know why. Why did those 6 hours with Zelda suddenly pull a 180 on his perspective? He was starting to miss having _hypothetical_ future journeys with her, despite the fact that he’d never wanted to become a Royal Babysitter. Why did it no longer felt so unnatural for him? Hell, after that panic attack he wanted to be close to her, to watch over her, to follow her, to protect her, even from something he couldn’t fight. It felt wrong, for some reason, to not be with her, he just knew implicitly that he was meant to be by her side. And that revelation was disconcerting. 

“No Impa- you’re needed here. I will be more than happy, and safe, with Sir Link by my side. We should be back soon enough at the Castle anyway. See you on Friday then Impa?” Zelda shuffled over to him.

Link was in a haze. An emotional haze but still. He had come to three conclusions. He didn’t want this day to end, because then it would become a fond memory and nothing else. He didn’t want to go back to the Castle, because that would signal the end- see conclusion 1. Most importantly, he didn’t want Zelda, not the Princess, _Zelda_ to forget ~~today~~ him. There wasn’t much time to continue to be lost in thought though, Impa was staring at him with barely veiled contempt. He’d gotten down from Epona and came to stand beside Zelda.

Impa gave a curt nod, bowed slightly, and then remained standing outside, and he let Zelda slowly walk down in front of him, and when he deemed it appropriate, he followed. He kept his gaze lowered, Impa’s reminders about his lowly rank rang though his head. When they’d reached around half the way down, he noticed Impa finally went inside, and Zelda took in deep breath- was it in relief? Had she been waiting for Impa to stop being a hawk too? 

“Whew. Impa really does have an iron grip on rules.” She shuddered slightly, and then sat down on the edge of the hill, her legs dangling over the edge. Link felt panic raise inside of him, what if she fell, what if Impa came out again, what if what if what if. She looked up at him, then continued to stare. What did she want? He couldn’t very well sit down next to her with Crimson Shadow probably still looking out of the window, supervising with that laser piercing scarlet gaze. He suppressed a shudder. She set her hand on her thigh and held her chin in her palm. She looked very cute, in an innocent way, with her cape halfway back on her head, exposing wayward blonde strands that framed her face. They had fallen out of her bun in the course of the day, and he itched to just move them back across her ears. That was Link’s first thought. The second was berating himself over even thinking that thought. 

She continued to look at him. Ah was it a challenge? Link could win eye staring contests. He was very good at those. She held out her hand, and slowly, gently, patted the ground down to her. Oh no. She really did want him to sit down. He quickly glanced at the window- and realised he couldn’t see it very well from this perspective. Perhaps Impa wouldn’t see after all. That and he wasn’t about to refuse a non-verbal order from his Princess. He clambered down next to her; legs also stretched out. He put his hands palms-down behind him and lent back, watching her. 

She chuckled at him. “ _Sir_ Link, did you really just get out of bed? And please don’t mind Impa. She’s very overprotective and doesn’t trust easily. I’m sorry for how she grilled you earlier- I tried to just make you leave so you wouldn’t have to suffer more. I’m sure, over time, she’ll come to like you.” She huffed out, literally in one breath. She seemed slightly nervous. If he didn’t know better, it sounded… a little rehearsed. Maybe she was just scared of how he’d react after the “humiliation”, but he really didn’t care- and he needed to make that clear. 

And the mocking tone she placed on his title wasn’t lost on him. There was a double meaning here, and Link wasn’t the best at “reading between the lines” but he guessed that she was making fun of him not being very knightly, and perhaps she wanted him to know that she didn’t particularly care for that fact. Or that she found it funny. That combined with how she’d more or less asked him to sit next her, helped allay a lot of Link’s fears of her thinking he wasn’t good enough. She didn’t side with Impa at all, spirits, she was apologising in her stead! And she wanted to see him again after today because how else would Impa ever get to like him? He heaved a great sigh of relief, and Zelda looked at him questioningly. 

“My mother woke me up late. Don’t tell her I said that.” He shuddered. “I don’t mind, _Princess_ Zelda Hyrule. Please don’t apologise- you did nothing wrong.” She laughed at his childish copying. Hey, he could tease her too. That would possibly make her less nervous and then she’d see that he really didn’t mind. He spoke almost without thinking, a very big first for him, wanting to get her mind off the awkwardness of their last encounter, “I suppose, in the duration of today, I… forgot. Or maybe it just…” Ok, he wasn’t going to attempt speech-before-thought again. He had wanted to apologise actually, about how he had, almost purposefully, forgotten she was a Princess? Sure, he had called her that, and he knew she was one, but the implications of what being Princess meant… the restrictions, the rules, the propriety he had more or less completely abandoned. He doubted many knights ate fruitcake or raced with a Princess horseback after all. 

She frowned, “What did you forget Link?”

“I… um, that there were rules I was supposed to follow? I’m not sure I acted appropriately today, Princess-” She burst out laughing. He had wanted to apologise for messing up. He wanted to explain that he had no idea what to do several times today, to name a few:

a) How was he supposed to address her? He was just calling her Princess, or by her name actually… which probably wasn’t allowed… whoops.  
b) When she had a panic attack- how was he supposed to have acted? But this seemed to be a sore topic and he didn’t want to bring that up.  
c) Was he supposed to have fetched his horses or her own horse? He hadn’t known her horse’s name, but he could have asked her?  
d) Should he have debated with her on whether to leave her in the stable or not? Actually- that was a good question- should he just accept all her commands, or should he offer input where he thought he could add something of value- like her safety?  
e) Was he supposed to have left her at Impa’s… he struggled for a word, (hut?) or stay with her?  
He wanted to tell her, the only rules he definitely knew were the 4 steps rule, because he’d seen his father do it countless times with the King, and the rule about letting royalty speak first, because that seemed like common sense. 

But before he could get into his long-winded confession, she laughed, and was still chuckling, and thus had cut off his train of speech completely. He smiled, chuckling slightly. He could get used to this, being by her side, listening to her laugh, watch her be happy and looking cheerful. 

“I think it’s better this way. After today, anyway. I…” her gaze shifted, instead focussed out onto the village and she looked uncomfortable, and that was the last thing he wanted. He needed to reassure her that whatever it was didn’t matter. 

“You… don’t have to say anything you don’t want to Princess.” He shifted positions, and almost reached out to touch her hand before decided that was probably off-limits. He instead settled for what he hoped was an encouraging smile.

She hesitantly half-smiled back, “The thing is Link, everyone treats me… in a certain manner. The fact that I’m a Princess, is in the forefront of how they react around me. I understand why, I guess, my title precedes who I am as a person. And there is of course, a stereotype attached to that title and most of the time, people will… adjust their behaviour to match that. They… only outwardly care about me because I am a Princess- and the benefits of being friends with the Princess will bring.” She gave a small shrug. 

Link had never thought about it that way before. He hadn’t realised that for her, being Zelda and being The Princess were two very different things. He hadn’t ever considered the knock-on effects- like how everyone would want to use her. He’d never had to worry about that before- people tended to show their true colours when you were poor, because there was nothing to gain, but he could see how everyone would wear a mask around her, and then become hypocrites behind her back. How could you even trust anyone- they could all be two-sided? It sounded so overwhelmingly lonely- who could you confess too if not your friends? He suddenly realised that Zelda had never had the things that he had grown up with and taken for granted: a chance to develop proper friendships without power, money or influence coming in the way. 

“So, you see, today, was very refreshing. You didn’t treat me differently to how you’d treat another girl who you were assigned to protect. The fact that I was- am- a Princess didn’t really make much of a difference. You respected me, listened to me, and you still regarded me, fundamentally, as a fellow Hylian, almost… a friend. A true friend.” She looked so vulnerable, and all Link wanted was to give her a solid hug. But if he thought hand holding was off-limits then a hug would break the scale. Was there a scale? Actually, who determined the propriety rules?

“I… never thought about it that way Princess. It must be so hard constantly assessing someone’s motives, to find out their true agenda.” He sighed. “It would be difficult to find a friend you could fully trust. It sounds… lonely.” She had tears in her eyes when he’d made that statement. Dammit, he wanted to reassure her, not make it worse. And it had obviously taken a lot of courage for her to confess what she had just said, so he reached over and lightly laid his hand on hers, he wasn’t hand holding per se, it was a comfort move! He could justify that way to himself, and the propriety rule-makers, that way. 

“I must admit, before today I… Well, I did sort of believe the stereotype- but you are _so much more_ than that Zelda. In the short time we’ve been together I’ve seen how you are resilient, kind, and so willing to help- spirits- you even helped _me_ , when it was _my_ job, to take down that black bokoblin!” He smiled at her, and she smiled wobblily back, “And… I wasn’t expecting to make a new friend today, _Zelda_. But I’m so glad that I have.” He wanted her to realise, that he was friends with her as a person, not the role she had born into. “I’m relieved though, that you saw past my… transgressions this morning, and have deemed me, a lowly Knight, worthy of your friendship. I promise to honour it-” Wait, he didn’t know what else to say. Was that how to ask a princess to be friends with you? Was that too pushy? Link wanted to put some ice on his furiously heated face. Actually, maybe he should just shove his head in his hands and hide. No, even better, maybe paragliding off the cliff would be a better option. He’d free fall about halfway to make it go faster. “Um, only if you want to.” he hastily added. Conversations were _so hard_. He felt all his hard-earned rest slip away whilst his brain wrestled with _what was the right thing to say?_

She put her other palm on top of his. Link’s heart rate sped up, and he suddenly felt nervous. “Thank you Link, for being honest. Oh- I forgot to mention, I do forgive you for that by the way. It wasn’t your fault I looked suspicious. Just- could you give me some tips on how to be stealthy like you are? Did you use an elixir?” Her eyes had brightened again, and he smiled, almost unconsciously, and that scared him, slightly. “And of course, I want to maintain the friendship we’ve started too.” She paused, “Is that how you say it?” 

Perhaps conversations were hard both ways.

He laughed, a rare thing, and couldn’t help squeezing her hand. He got up and pulled on her hand, so she stood up too. Her eyes widened, and he wondered if he’d accidently hurt her. He hadn’t used an elixir, it would have been against the rules, but a meal with Stealthfin trout… Well, that certainly wasn’t forbidden. But he wasn’t about to confess that. He’d let her think he was just great at moving smoothly through the night. 

“Link- we’re supposed to go meet Eliana, aren’t we? Spirits I’d almost forgotten.” She looked genuinely horrified, and perhaps a little fearful too. Guess his mother really had made an impactful first impression with her trusty soup ladle. It was a miracle that thing hadn’t broken yet, considering his mother’s heavy… use. 

“Don’t worry- I couldn’t forget such a thing even if I had amnesia. That’s why I pulled you up- we’re getting late.” He suddenly had an idea. He looked down the hill- there was a fair distance- they could do it. “Zelda, do you have your paraglider?” She nodded, and then her eyes revivified as she guessed what he was going to suggest. She smiled, a devious smile, if he had ever seen one, whipped out her indigo and gold lined paraglider and leapt off the edge. “Race you Link!” 

“No, wait- Zelda, that’s- that’s not fair!” He cried as she circled back around, much like he had done, and stuck her tongue out. Well. Link wasn’t going to give in so easily, he quickly tapped Epona’s hind and pointed at his home, she understood and started to plod her way back. He ran back to the cliff edge, used his hookshot to latch onto a small ledge, and then paraglided out on a level higher than the cheating Princess. He was above her within seconds, and then slowly lowered down to her level as they soared above his home. 

Hateno was renowned for its industrial-scale dye industry- every house in the centre of town contributed in some form to the trade. Huge vats of colour loomed all around, and from this height it looked like an artist’s pallet. He could just about make out the small village shops, selling everything from groceries to handmade clothes, freshly dyed of course, that the village was famous for. He spotted several friends’ houses- and made a mental note to come back and visit them- it had been a long 5 weeks since he had last come home. He glanced over and Zelda had the biggest smile on her face, her eyes wide open, facing the setting sun and gazing over the town. He spied in the distance the… demon Goddess Statue and he couldn’t let Zelda stumble into its sight. It had traumatised Link when he’d first come across it, he wouldn’t allow it to do the same to her. He whistled, quickly getting her attention across the wind, and then pointed in the direction of his house, steering his glider towards it. She caught on and followed, and as they weaved through the last of the shops and landed just before the bridge. He heaved a sigh of relief that she made it in one piece, and he caught her still grinning like a Cheshire cat. He laughed again, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed twice in such a short space of time.


	11. Chapter 11

Zelda’s POV  
At the bridge outside Link’s family home, 5:30 pm

Whilst she flew, Zelda hoped to Nayru that Link didn’t know that she’d spent the first half of their trip down from the lab thinking of how to apologise, and how to… well she didn’t want to admit it, but how to become friends. The last, uncomplicated, friendship she’d had was in kindergarten- her mother had still been alive. Zelda guessed her mother had pushed for her to have a normal childhood, so she’d gone to the local Castle Town one. It had been easy to make friends over sand wars, and water fights, and she’d wished it could be the same as she grew up and moved to private tutoring with other high-class children. She’d obviously out-ranked them all, and that hadn’t gone down well, except for one- Countess Hilda. But Zelda didn’t want to focus on her iffy friendships right now, not after how it had all gone well with Link. And he had actually wanted to _continue_ being friends and that made Zelda feel warm from inside, with butterflies flying around in her stomach- much like how that jump off the hill had been. Technically, she was only supposed to use the paraglider in emergencies, but she wasn’t about to confess that to anyone. And it had been worth it- she realised something then, that she had limited notions as to how beautiful her own country was. It was rare that she’d even be out in Hyrule alone, let alone be allowed to use the paraglider. Zelda felt the same loss, the same hole, flare up inside her, and she wondered if perhaps Impa’s plan of travelling around the country had more merit than she’d previously assumed. Although, one, slightly less pleasant side effect was how her upper arms had started to _burn_ and she was vibrating slightly by the time Link indicated which way to go. She breathed a sigh of relief once she noticed the land mass below was drawing closer, and she bent her knees, landing with a huff, as she put her paraglider away. She fought the urge to massage her aching biceps. 

Now that they weren’t stressed about being late, Zelda finally had the time to appreciate just how pretty Link’s family home was. The bridge itself was old-fashioned in how it was made of wood, but that didn’t mean it was any less sturdy and actually it was quite beautiful. The waterfall in the backdrop was stunning too. Zelda couldn’t imagine how growing up here must have been, all she’d ever known where cold stone floors, crimson and navy banners, and rock-hard black granite tables. She could almost feel the serenity, and calm that pervaded the whole area. And the fact that his home was located outside the village proper, meant it had a secluded feel to it. The house itself was painted off-white- which she never would have considered a smart choice for a house because well, dirt, soil, and other stains would show up so easily, but that wasn’t the case. It looked so polished and refined amongst the village brick houses, almost like it was from another era entirely. 

Link walked out in front of her, did a really showy, exaggerated bow, with a flourish of his hand at the end, “Welcome, properly this time, to my family home Princess.” She’d smiled at his antics. And with that, he went back to his standard four steps behind her. The distance didn’t seem so significant anymore.

She went up to the door, and knocked twice, as etiquette determined appropriate. Link’s mother all but whammed the door open, and seeing her there, instead of Link, sent her into a fitful bow. She had flour streaks across her cheek and some in her hair, her soup ladle was attached to the wall in the distance. Zelda smiled, and urged her up. 

“Princess, it would be my greatest honour to invite you to have dinner in our humble abode before continuing on your travels back to Hyrule Castle. It would mean the world to me if you’d accept.” She paused, “I don’t mean to sway your decision in any way, but I may have already cooked 75% of the meal and it would be a big waste if you didn’t stay.” Eliana smiled as she rose and wiped her face with her non-floured hand. 

Zelda didn’t have the heart to say no, and really, what would be the harm in staying for another hour, “Of course, Eliana! I would be delighted to have dinner with you. I cannot stop for long, but it would be a great personal loss indeed, if I didn’t have the chance to taste your cooking.” Eliana smiled, and nodded, encouraging her to come in. Link received a head ruffle, and a pointed finger towards a door, which Zelda assumed led to his bedroom. Link sighed, and heaved his eyes skyward, before Eliana gave him a good push in that direction, and he begrudgingly opened the door and walked incredibly slowly inside. She was sure Eliana would have gotten hold of her soup ladle and given Link a more obvious threat as he reluctantly complied with her commands, if Zelda hadn’t been there. As it was, she simply smiled serenely and went back to her stove. Zelda followed her.

“Do you need any help Eliana?” She didn’t want to admit it, but she had practically no experience in cooking food. She could manage a decent elixir but… food was a very different matter. And it smelled heavenly in the small kitchen and she didn’t want to ruin it. Especially considering Eliana was nearly finished- it wouldn’t do to wreak havoc at the last minute.

Eliana looked semi-horrified. “Oh no, Your Highness. I’m almost done anyway. Why don’t you have a seat whilst I add the finishing touches.” Eliana smiled, and Zelda felt a familiar ache in her chest, it was a motherly smile, and she couldn’t help but miss her own mother. “I hope your trip was good, Princess?”

That dragged her back to the present, “Yes, it was- we managed to cover many topics, so I’d say it was a success.” 

She hummed, “Is this your first time travelling with Link as your guard? I didn’t know Knights could substitute for Royal Guards so easily.”

Zelda hesitantly smiled, coughing slightly, “Yes, it is my first. Um, neither did I! The Commander- do you know of him?” Eliana nodded, “Yes, well, he decided to send Link with me.”

“Oh! Well, I’m glad The Commander thinks Link is worthy enough for your protection then, Your Highness. My husband, Alleyn, is in the Royal Guard- has he guarded you before Princess? Link has followed in his footsteps mostly,” she sighed as she cut up some coriander leaves and put them on top of the curry. 

She paused, trying to shift through her memory of the Royal Guards. “I do know of him- he’s been in the Guard practically since my birth I believe? I’m not sure though. If you don’t mind me asking, Eliana, how come you haven’t moved to Castle Town?”

She set the knife down and came to sit next to Zelda. “We just have to let it all stew for a few minutes and then dinner will be ready. Truth be told, Princess, I never felt at home in Castle Town. The bustle, the crowds, the noise, the smoke… I’ve lived in Hateno all my life, and I just couldn’t adapt to the city. And one of us was needed to maintain our farmland here, and my shop, so it only made sense for me to stay here and for Alleyn to come and go.” She paused, grabbing a bowl of honeyed candy and offered her one. “Although, when Link first left to go work in the Castle, I did actually end up staying in Castle Town for a while to help him settle in. But then I had to come back, as it had become harder to manage everything here.” 

Zelda wasn’t the biggest fan of sweets- she would immediately think about how her insulin levels were spiking and the risks of a fast increase in blood glucose, rather than think about the taste. But honeyed candy was her favourite out of them all because it was at least made from something completely natural and honey had many medical benefits. She munched on one and complimented Eliana on her candy-making skills. “I understand- having grown up in Hyrule Castle, there really wasn’t much space for nature- there was the Castle Courtyard, but it’s nothing like Hateno. It’s almost like your house is built in amongst the natural flora and fauna, compared to the city, where nature is only reintroduced in convenient locations after everywhere has been constructed over. It really is beautiful and peaceful here- almost completely opposite to the hustle and bustle of the city.”

“Yes! Exactly so. And Link was another reason why I wanted to stay, I wanted him to grow up in the countryside, at a slower pace. But now he’s left and it’s no longer the same. Of course, he couldn’t remain here forever, there aren’t as many opportunities as in the city.” Zelda felt a pang of pain- here was Link, who had a mother waiting for him, and _he’d left her_ , whilst she continued to pine for one. She nodded in response, and then Eliana looked up startled. “Oh no!! I forgot the honeyed apples!” she ran over to what Zelda presumed was the fruit bowl, but it only had bananas in it. “And I don’t have apples! But I can’t leave the curry now, it might get burnt-”

Zelda immediately stood, the poor woman was distressed, and she’d done so much already, “I can procure some for you, Eliana, just where should I go?”

Eliana smiled, then shook her head, “No, Princess, it wouldn’t be befitting for you to go collect apples for me! I’ll just get Link to do it-”

She shook her head, “No it’s fine, I’ll fetch Link and we’ll get them, you can stay here.” 

Eliana chuckled, “Okay. Tell him to get them from tree outside and not the courtyard, it’ll be quicker that way.” 

She bumbled around, and Zelda quickly walked back into the small hallway. Link suddenly appeared at his door, whipping his head around as if looking for something and she saw relief flash across his features when he spotted her. He whispered, “Zelda- is dinner ready? Is mother coming?”

“No to both. But your mother wanted us to bring her some apples- which is why I came to find you. What’s wrong?”

Link slumped across the door, “I’ve only managed about 4 tunics and maybe two trousers. I can’t do anymore.”

Zelda was so confused. What? “What are you talking about? Why are you managing tunics? What is there to manage?”

Link remained slouched, “So you know how I was pushing it for time when I came to fetc- escort you?” She nodded. “Well, I was trying to be fast as humanely possible to make it up in time and as a consequence I managed to ruin my dear mother’s organisation of my wardrobe. Hence why I’m managing tunics.”

There were only a few times in Zelda’s life that she’d been stupefied into silence. This was one of those. What was she supposed to say in response to that? Oh, _maybe you should have been more careful_? “Well- in any case, I assume you’ve been spared wardrobe-fixing duty and have been assigned to be my assistant in harvesting apples.” 

Link smiled in response, doing another completely unnecessary bow, it was almost a joke now, if anything. “After you, _Your Royal Highness._ ”

She scoffed as she walked out, and he followed, chuckling behind her. 

* * *

After three apples were safely delivered into Eliana’s hands, she shooed them (cough Link, who she lovingly called The Vagrant, even if the connotations of that word weren’t well, positive in the least- Zelda wondered why he was called that) away from the kitchen and sat them down on the dining table- with Zelda at the head and Link on her left. Eliana came in with starters- a side plate of triangular vegetable rice balls, and a small bowl of carrot stew with miniature bread rolls to round it off. 

Zelda couldn’t help the gasp that fluttered out when she saw the bread rolls- they reminded her of her happier childhood meals and how the cooks would make a smaller bread roll for her, as _the baby_. Everything tasted perfect- the palace chefs had nothing on Eliana. 

Nothing was burnt, over-seasoned or unappetising. It was the most comforting, homely, and delicious food Zelda had eaten in a long time. She couldn’t help but stare at Link, he had downed at least 5 bread rolls and two bowls of stew already, and she couldn’t tell anymore what it was he was actually eating. It seemed Link ate food the way the rest of the populace breathed air- for every bite Zelda took, Link had finished the whole serving. And he wasn’t overweight, which really surprised Zelda. She sighed longingly, if only she had a similar metabolism. Then again, maybe he only ate this much of his mother’s cooking. He was currently gawking at Eliana with puppy-dog eyes asking for more. Eliana sighed overdramatically, flicking his full cheeks and brought him his third? Fourth? Fifth helping? Zelda could no longer keep track. And she decided for her own sanity she wouldn’t try. If he asphyxiated, she’d conduct some basic first aid, but it looked like this was how he always ate so that was unlikely to be a real issue. 

As she looked around the living room, she saw several photo frames all showing Link growing up- the first was him asleep as a small toddler- he looked so cute, she wanted to pinch his plump baby cheeks! He really didn’t look any different sleeping on the train and that made her wonder if she looked the same asleep now as she did when she was that age. The second was of him climbing the waterfall outside. He didn’t look older than five! She couldn’t help but inhale sharply when she saw that one- and Link had looked up from serving six? seven? and chuckled hesitantly. When Eliana flitted back in, she sat down and explained. “That was his first-time climbing outside. I hadn’t known about it until he was already halfway up- and his father had decided to take a photo instead of stopping him. I left him, to supervise, for a mere three minutes whilst I went inside to get Link a hot buttered apple, and when I came back out, he was climbing a rock face. A rock face, _right next to a waterfall_. He could have slipped and-” 

“Mother you do realise that this was at least 11 years ago? You’re acting like it happened yesterday.” 

She swatted his arm, “I feared for you then, as I fear for you now. A mother’s worry never ends, especially with a son as reckless as you are.” She turned to Zelda, “I personally would have preferred a daughter- at least she wouldn’t have constantly given me heart attacks.” Link narrowed his eyes and he turned away from her in mock annoyance, and she swatted his arm again, “Don’t worry, vagrant, I still love you with all my being.”

Zelda laughed, “I can’t speak for all daughters, but I didn’t really give my guardians an easy time with things. I would constantly run down to the technology room that we had, and the technicians there would stress over trying to control me from being electrocuted due to all the live wires running everywhere.” She hummed, “Or alternatively, I’d sprint down to the moat and play with cryonis on the slate. Jumping across ice blocks in the middle of a rushing river was always fun.” 

Link looked up, pausing from his intake of bowl eight? Or nine? “Wait- I have two questions: what is cryonis and why did you have a slate before 12?”

“Cryonis basically creates ice blocks in any water source. It’s rather niche, and not really primed for attacks which is why I guess you don’t have access to it.” She awkwardly chuckled, “Aha, I guess you caught me. I did go down to the Technology Room an awful lot, so they gave me a slate to try to keep me occupied.”

Eliana continued to look on, horrified, “Ok. Maybe you’re both too reckless for your own goods.” They had all laughed then, Eliana rubbing Link’s head and patting Zelda’s arm. And it continued in a similar manner of stories and laughter- Zelda found out Link had a fancy-dress fetish, and Eliana pulled out an album full of pictures of various costumes he had accumulated. He’d gone crimson and tried to shove it under the table, but Eliana was too quick and tossed it Zelda who caught it with a flourish. Link graciously accepted defeat, instead sitting down with his head in his hands whilst Zelda investigated the contents. 

Some of them were horrible- the worst was the Phantom Ganon armour, apparently it had been from a Halloween dress up day at school, and it sent chills down her spine so she moved away from that one quickly. And for some reason she had vague inklings about the Phantasma amour he had – it seemed to strike a memory of stifling heat, but for the life of her, Zelda couldn’t figure out why. Her favourite was the little purple bunny hood, it was very endearing, and Link had dutifully gone and found it- presenting it with a flourish to her. It felt as fluffy as it looked in the picture. 

She’d shared her hobby of making elixirs- and how the science behind it really fascinated her and how bugs weren’t at all something to fear. Eliana had nodded in response, saying she herself had made plenty of elixirs for Link and her husband, in fact, those elixirs are what she sold in her shop, so she’d be happy to share some trade secret recipes with Zelda. And she must have looked so excited, because immediately Eliana had fetched her book, and Zelda had taken various pictures, making notes in her Journal rune. Link had blanched slightly when insects where mentioned- and Zelda stored that information away for later in her miscellaneous folder. Before Zelda realised, the main course arrived- a petite seafood paella, a side of fragrant mushroom sauté, with the main gourmet meat curry accompanied by meat stuffed baby pumpkins. 

Zelda felt incredibly guilty. “How did you manage to cook all of this alone Eliana? The paella alone had so many ingredients… I really hope that you didn’t make all of this just because I am a Princess.”

“Of course not, Your Highness, I rarely cook for company these days- so I’ve saved up on a lot of ingredients and I appreciate the chance to use my recipes for when my guests do come around. And Link here has always loved his food, so I cook a lot for him- he hasn’t been home in so long.” She ruffled his hair as she spoke. 

That was another thing Zelda had realised- the reason why the food tasted so good. It wasn’t just Eliana’s skill, it was the fact that everything she made was with love- love for her son, for their family. The familiar ache crept up through her chest again. It was so hard, sitting there, watching something that would never be hers, and that even when she strained her memory the hardest, she could only ever catch glimpses of. 

She couldn’t remember if her mother had ruffled her hair, or if she’d braided her thick blond strands. She couldn’t remember if her mother had cooked cakes with her or made something for her. She had portraits made of her every year as a Princess- in keeping with the past traditions, to “show her growth and development”, and the odd picture of her in her slate, but she didn’t have photos that held memories the way Link had. She didn’t have albums about hobbies she had- the ones a mother would take pictures of and store away. Fundamentally, she couldn’t remember if her mother had loved her, because she didn’t remember doing anything with her. She knew, that she was being irrational, of course her mother loved her, but she had... no proof of that, no memories to back it up. And to know, that her mother’s passing had simply been a requisite checkbox in her fate, so that she’d fight the calamity, hurt even more. 

Eliana’s motherly senses seemed attuned to her pain, because suddenly she had crossed over from Link’s seat and had laid a hand on her shoulder asking how the meal was. Perhaps Alleyn had told Eliana about Zelda being motherless. Then again, it wasn’t like the Queen being dead was a secret, it was fairly commonplace knowledge. The fact that Zelda’s mother had died, and was no longer with her, had long become a distant pain, a shadow that followed her, but if left alone, it didn’t hurt. The shadow was an unceasing reminder, but it was a dull pain rather than a constant throbbing one, but today, it had received too many hits; first the glass shattering, then the ice arrows, then the meeting with Impa and now _family_ dinner. The grief had escaped from its containment and had come to envelope Zelda like a second skin over her own. Each movement resulted in pain. Everything had become a taunt, a reminder, a derision. Hell, even the honeyed apples for dessert seemed to mock her- what was your mother’s favourite dessert? She didn’t know. What was your mother’s favourite fruit? She didn’t know. Do you even know your own mother? And the answer was No. She didn’t. She couldn’t even be sure of the validity of the only memory she did have- the walk in the Castle Courtyard. 

She managed to smile at Eliana and compliment her, even if it was probably more of a grimace, than a true smile. If there ever was a time to be grateful for the diplomatic Princess skills, that she’d had hammered into her from the age of 6, it was now. Zelda could feel the mask slip in, covering the fissures in her composure, overlaying the grief so that now she felt doubly suffocated, but it was worth it- Eliana had smiled and had gone over to fetch something. 

She came back, with an emerald green knitted headband- it had green ribbons weaved in with small pearls interlocking through the design. “A gift for you Princess. I hope you like it? I made it when I saw your eyes- they are such a beautiful startling green and I happened to have matching yarn so…”

Zelda felt her mask tighten as she smiled, but she was genuinely happy- it was a beautiful gift and she told Eliana so. “I really do like it, Eliana- the work is flawless and such a beautiful shade. But you shouldn’t have gone into so much trouble- I really would have just appreciated dinner- that was a wonderful gift in itself.” 

Eliana smiled at her, patting Zelda’s head, “It’s not every day the Princess comes to eat at my house. Would it be alright if I put it in your hair for you, Your Highness?”

Zelda nodded, and she felt the mask break slightly. The grief was fighting to come out, it was restraining its bonds. Every touch of Eliana’s fingers against every strand of her hair, seemed to remind her of her own mother having done the same thing. But she couldn’t remember, and it hurt. It burned almost. Zelda didn’t understand. Her handmaids had braided her hair day in and out since she could remember and none of them had ever inspired this reaction. None of them had opened the floodgates of grief in this way. A rational thought! Zelda could stick to that instead of fall prey to the emotion raging in her. 

As Eliana left to fetch her handheld mirror, Zelda shook her head slightly. It wasn’t right or polite to make Eliana upset because she was jealous and depressed over her own mother. It was just fate and there was nothing she could do. Zelda prided herself on being rational, and rationally, nothing was going to make her mother come back- no amount of wishing, envying, or jealousy would ever bring her back. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t honour her mother and go visit her. She made a promise to herself that she would go and lay flowers on her mother’s grave soon. It had been too long since her last visit. 

As Eliana approached, her eyes shining with excitement and a small amount of worry, Zelda felt herself mend slightly, as she put the broken pieces back together for the umpteenth time, and she smiled wholeheartedly this time. The band really did look beautiful- it matched her eyes perfectly. And Eliana had weaved it into a braid, so that her hair formed a crown almost, alongside the band. It felt very comfortable too. Zelda stood up and gave Eliana a hug, who returned it just as quickly. “I’m afraid I will have to leave soon, Eliana, to get back to the Castle on time. Thank you so much for your hospitality- your cooking skills are unmatched. And thank you for this gift. I will always treasure it.”

“You may come back anytime you wish, Princess. I will always leave the door open for you- just like I do for that vagrant sitting right there.” Zelda wanted to burst out into tears, she might not ever remember her own mother, but here was another offering her home to her. Zelda hugged her even tighter, this woman who barely knew her, had said such a simple sentence and it had soothed, slightly, the ripped and bleeding wounds her mother’s death had left on her soul. She had treated Zelda as an equivalent to her own son- someone who she’d known for a maximum of two hours. She would perhaps never get over the loss of her own mother, but she was hopeful she’d eventually be able to make peace with it. Link had since stood up, and had come up to them, and Eliana had lifted her left arm from Zelda and hugged him too, so that both of their heads were rested on one of her shoulders, and just as she felt a ghost of an arm hover above her shoulder blade- she assumed Link was debating whether it would be ok to hug her, and she felt his fingertips brush against her right shoulder, the front door banged open, and all three of them stumbled in shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for ending on a cliffhanger, I hate those as a reader but it just served as a good stopping point for the next one.  
> Unfortunately, uni has really started to wear me down, and I'm not sure I'll get the next chapter out for next Wednesday, so apologies in advance.
> 
> And side note, the cutscenes in Age of Calamity are awesome, and the scene where Link gets the Master Sword lives rent free in my head- the zelink vibes are so S T R O N G.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: Details emotional abuse

Link’s POV 

Link’s Family Home, 7:05 pm

Link was feeling content, he’d just eaten at least 5 kg of his mother’s cooking and the comfort food that it was, had spread little bubbles of happiness from his stomach to all his joints. His favourite was the little stuffed pumpkin, he would have to sneak a picture of his mother’s recipe to remake that one. He couldn’t stop thinking about what else he could substitute inside, perhaps some Gerudo Spice with rice, or maybe it could hold some form of soup. The possibilities were endless. 

Surprisingly, Zelda hadn’t laughed at that ridiculous album his mum had made and teased him mercilessly with, in fact, she’d appeared to be very seriously engaged with it (which actually… didn’t surprise him on second thoughts). She also treated his humble home with respect; then again, Zelda had consistently proven that she didn’t care about class and positions- she cared about people, and he could see that with himself, and his mother. She seemed to be lost in thought though- several times he had looked up, from his various meals rounds and she’d been gazing, almost longingly, at the wall. What was so special about the wall? He would have given her anything she wanted from said wall, but it was bare. He was confused, but anyway. 

By far his favourite bit of the evening had been the end, she’d surprised him when she hugged his mother with such force, and being an only child, he naturally felt a small, _very small_ mind, twinge of jealousy and had come up to his mum, who had enveloped them both. It had felt so natural to be so close to her, to almost hug her. But then things went downhill. He was so shocked by the door opening that he’d almost fallen on Eliana, and then Zelda had stumbled onto him, and he’d only just managed to whip an arm around her and stabilise her against himself, and he had pushed his mother so that she effectively sat on the table and managed to grasp back at a seat with his flailing arm, the Princess pulled flush against him. He would have blushed enough to cook mushrooms on his flaming cheeks, but the stranger who had stormed in had stepped inside, a shadow looming in front of him. And Link had spurred into action, pushing himself off the seat, making sure the Princess was on her feet whilst he looked around, dammit where was his sword- he must have taken it off in the hallway, after coming back from the apple harvest, and the stranger chucked it at him. 

Uh… what?

The stranger had given him his sword back. Why?

Link caught it reflexively, his bandaged arm scraped across the blade slightly, tearing it. He felt his blood chill, as he slowly looked up, past the elongated shadow, to the Royal Guard Armour, a large billowing cape swirled around his figure, and met his father’s hazel eyes. 

The wind hurled outside, the weather had taken a turn for the worse whilst they were enjoying dinner, and the door banged against the frame again. 

His father radiated fury, his eyes narrowed and the pupils at pinpoint focus on Link. 

Link swallowed, but his mouth was as dry as sandpaper.

His father’s shadow loomed across the floor, the electric lights made it appear bigger than what it was, and inch by inch it crept up towards Link. 

Spirits. 

His father hadn’t said a word, he came up to the Princess, who suddenly seemed to realise a Royal Guard had just walked in and her eyes widened in recognition as he knelt in front of her. “Princess Zelda, I am so glad I managed to find you.” He heaved a sigh of relief, bowing his head even lower.

Link absently wondered just how many confrontations this day would hold. First the Princess, then The Commander; the bokoblins (x 2); Impa and her threatening-but-awesomely-powerful sword and now, his father. Oh, and technically his mother too. He’d forgotten about the soup ladle. 

Zelda looked confused, “Sir Alleyn, please rise.” And as his father did so, she questioned, “I’m slightly confused- why are you looking for me?”

That was a very valid question. Link himself wanted to hear the answer- hadn’t The Commander trusted him to look after the Princess? 

Alleyn brokered no hesitance, “The King, after having read your note, I presume, quite late in the day, responded by sending out a notice for The Commander at the midday hearings. He’d explained that he’d allowed the Princess to leave with _just a Knight_ , who happened to be around at the time. The King was, understandably, infuriated at the lack of protection, Your Royal Highness. He ordered a squadron of Royal Guards to locate you. He specifically issued a Royal Command that a simple Knight,” he paused and looked directly at Link, before ramming his sword down in the standard Royal Guard position, “couldn’t be _worthy_ enough of looking after the Princess.” Link felt a surge of shame hit him, slicing him in half as his father’s words cut him to his core. It was one thing to be humiliated in private, in their Castle Town House, and another entirely to be insulted so in front of his mother… and Zelda. 

Eliana seemed to step out her shock at seeing his father there, “Alleyn- this is a pleasant surprise. I think there’s been a misunderstanding, would you please sit down- I’ll just bring over some tea-”

His father shook his head. “I have to bring the Princess back, Eliana. I don’t have time to waste.” It appeared Alleyn had more to say about Link’s apparent abysmal behaviour though, as he gave a self-righteous nod, “And of course- His Majesty is completely right- Link how could you be so foolish as to accept? The Princess perhaps doesn’t know you’ve only just passed your Knight exam-” Link felt himself shut down, the stoic mask was on, and he would resist every taunt his father threw his way. His lips were sealed. He wouldn’t say a word against Alleyn’s tirade. He had long since adopted silence when his father began to rant and rage. It was easier than saying something only to be held accountable for each syllable later.

Zelda interrupted, “Sir Alleyn- Sir Link was knighted, by The Commander, _in front of me_. In fact, if I remember correctly, The Commander had stated that he had given the best performance to date.” He felt overwhelming gratitude towards Zelda. She’d taken the friendship business to heart and was defending him. The _Princess of Hyrule, was defending him, to his own father_. Link hadn’t ever felt so cowardly as he did in this minute, but he couldn’t answer back, the repercussions would be too great. 

“Princess – with all due respect, but you do not know what rigorous training Royal Guards must endure before we are deemed worthy of the honour of guarding the Royal Family. It is not a simple thing at all. And it appears Link did not do as stellar a job as you so boldly proclaim- because I have only just come from Lady Impa who informed me, kindly, of the blood stain on your leg- due to Link’s wound?”

His father then seemed to remember that Link was, in fact, his son, and that he should _maybe_ show some concern. Alleyn wrapped an arm around Link’s shoulders, his fingers curling around into a vice-grip, and Link felt himself stiffen as if he’d been electrified. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had hugged him- even this weak arm ‘brother’ hug. “You alright, son? You seemed fine when I walked in, and I was just so worried…” His eyes crinkled up and he looked genuinely concerned. But Link could clearly see how it didn’t reach his eyes. They were still glinting fire and fury. Alleyn could have fooled anyone else though. Link did he best to nod like he meant it and not like he was a robot jerking away from his father’s prying fingers. Oh, and son? What? That was… new. 

Link felt rapidly rising levels of trepidation because Farore, his father knew about _everything_. He would tease out all the details about anything that happened by the end of the day. Impa may have respected the Princess, and not questioned her further than she was comfortable with about the day’s events, but his father was ruthless. He didn’t care about emotions; he knew no limits. There was only one thing Alleyn cared about and that was honour. And even Link could admit that his actions hadn’t been very honourable, even if they had the best intentions behind them. Link felt growing apprehension towards what would inevitably happen once they returned the Princess home. His father tapped the top of his head and Link sensed each and every one reverberate down his spine, and _finally_ Alleyn let go. Guess that was the end of the comfort show. The dread creeped up, slowly but surely. 

Zelda sounded unsure, “Those attacks were unexpected, Sir Alleyn, it was highly unlikely that a _moving train_ would be attacked and by _monster’s riding horses_ no less, and that the cart system would also be under threat in a similar fashion. I’m sure Lady Impa reported the increase in monster attacks to you?”

Alleyn briefly turned to face her, “Yes, she did- all the more reason for you to be extra-careful Your Highness.” Link couldn’t believe it; his father was actually lecturing the Princess. Did he actually think himself above her? “And if I may be so bold Princess- what attack is expected?” Well damn. 

He turned his attention back to Link, stroking his cheek. Link felt the blood drain from his face. What was this fake comforting business about? His father didn’t show Link affection. Ever. “Why did you bring the Princess home? Goddesses above, I had thought The Commander was talking about another some other Link, I didn’t believe it could be _you_. I only put two and two together when Lady Impa gave a description of the boy the Princess had travelled with, and I recognised you, and came straight home to investigate! We didn’t see any sign of the Princess travelling on the way here- so by default the last place you could have taken her was our family home.” Link was so confused, the caress his father had used seemed to almost soften the rebukes he was giving. It was almost like how he’d seen other fathers discipline their children, comfort them, but simultaneously tell them what they were doing was wrong. But… that wasn’t the method Alleyn employed with Link. And Link wouldn’t be fooled, there was a game at play here, and he wouldn’t fall into the trap. He’d spent too long wishing for, praying for, _striving_ for, his father’s appreciation and love and he wouldn’t fall prey to going back into that hell again. Alleyn sighed, and then put his hands on his thighs, bending down so that he was eye to eye with Link. “You do realise you had absolutely no permission to take the Princess home with you? Surely, even as untrained as you are in Royal Protocol, it would have been evident that such an act would be highly inappropriate?” 

Alleyn stood up tall, and laughed sarcastically, eyes trained on Link. It was a humiliating laughter. One that emphasised just how stupid Link was, just how naïve he was, just how clueless he was. Link knew that laughter all too well, and he lowered his eyes to the floor with shame. The whole act had been a show- he was glad he hadn’t assumed for a second It was genuine. And everyone was none the wiser to it. Link felt the same familiar ache in his chest, the unworthiness, the feeling of never being good-enough, the pity and shame that he always felt emanate from his father for him. 

His mother stepped in, “That was my idea, Alleyn. I had told Link to come back here before he left- I would have given him some food to take home, but when I saw the Princess with him earlier, I had decided to invite them both to dinner- Her Highness accepted, and they were just leaving when you came in.” His mother wasn’t oblivious, she could see that his father was obviously quite angry, and he wasn’t really listening to reason. She could probably tell that something was off, even if Alleyn had never really blown his fuse in front of her before. Perhaps she thought Alleyn was simply upset about the Princess situation. Which he was, but Link knew that wasn’t it. Not entirely anyway. He knew _everything_ was infuriating to his father right now, and anything could tip him off. Link felt the dread increase further. He could stay, technically, with mother tonight seeing as his father, and the King, deemed him unworthy of guarding the Princess. He immediately scratched that thought out, he had given his word to The Commander that he would accompany Zelda on her journey there _and_ back, and he would fulfil that. And he wasn’t that cowardly, delaying the confrontation with his father by one night wouldn’t make it magically go away. 

“You actually thought it would be appropriate for a Princess to eat our food? Out of our plates? I can’t… And will you stop answering for him?” He rounded on Link, “Tell me this, why were you hugging the Princess? Don’t think I didn’t see what happened, or the aftermath.” 

Well, at least they were no longer pretending to be have a wholesome father-son relationship. 

He couldn’t maintain silence against such an accusation. That was bringing Zelda’s honour into disrepute, he couldn’t care less about what his father assumed of him, or called him, or mocked him with, because as his father he was allowed to do that. Treating the Princess in the same way was completely different. She had stood up for him, and damn it, he would do the same. “I did not _hug_ Princess Zelda Hyrule, father. Surely you realise that is insulting her honour?” Alleyn blanched at that. Good. Let him feel fear for once. _It’s not at all nice, is it father?_ Link felt vile satisfaction creep up through him, as he finally made his father realise how it felt to make a mistake and then publicly air that mistake. Because now, Zelda, The Princess of Hyrule, would always know him as having accused her of impropriety, and Link knew that was the one thing, alongside honour, that his father loved the most. He immediately felt guilt, and sick to his stomach, because he was using Zelda fro her position and she didn’t even know. He was no different to those people in court. “Mother was hugging us both. And if you saw my hand near her shoulder- it was because you’d startled us, and I needed to make sure she didn’t fall.” 

“I can vouch for Knight Link- he did not touch me inappropriately.” Zelda staunchly added. Dammit it, the guilt grew. Here she was, accepting his view, supporting him, when he’d gone and used her position for his benefit, to exact revenge from his father. Her face seemed to be carved out of granite, regal looking, all powerful. She had more courage that he had; she was staring right in his father’s eyes. Link just wanted this torture to end, he’d had enough. He didn’t want to hurt Zelda and their friendship more, he didn’t want to accidently use her position in the same way again, he just wanted to crawl in his mother’s lap and let her stroke his hair as if he was three again. 

Faced with two people who denied him, one being the _Princess_ , seemed to bring Alleyn back to his senses from his rage. Although Link could see the unspoken question in his eyes- there would still be hell to pay for, later. 

Link supressed the shiver that ran down to the end of his spine, and nodded at the Princess. She seemed to understand, “We should get going now, Eliana. Thank you once again- I loved your cooking, and I really appreciate your thoughtful present, and I will take you up on that offer to come back.” She smiled, but it was small, his mother smiled back, nodding, and with that Zelda walked out into the hallway, a respectable distance away, leaving the three of them behind. 

Link felt his mother’s arms surround him, she sneaked a small box into his back pocket, and kissed his forehead, passing him a bag with what he guessed was his Sheikah Armour, but he couldn’t check as Alleyn grabbed his arm, half-dragging him into the hallway. He pinched hard enough that Link felt it, and it hurt, but not enough to leave imprints, whispering in his ear, “ _I will find out- everything you’re hiding- I. Will. Find. Out._ ” And with that, he hauled Link behind him, moving behind the Princess. 

“Your Royal Highness, I will check the surroundings- although we have seven Royal Guards waiting outside, I’d rather you stay inside whilst I check, please.”  
Link distracted himself from his growing fear and instead looked at the Princess. He suppressed a laugh from escaping at how Zelda was trying so hard not to roll her eyes. When Alleyn finally left, she really did roll them, and he let go of a breathy chuckle, and she’d smiled back in response. He had contained his laughter because he hadn’t wanted his father to hear anything. Speaking of, within seconds Alleyn had reappeared and guided Zelda out. There was a Royal carriage box waiting off the bridge- and Alleyn pointed his finger towards their horses. “Leave Luna here. Saddle up and be ready- I will escort the Princess and come back.” And with that, the fear came hurtling back, and the further away Zelda went, the fear ratcheted up a notch. The closer they were to leaving, meant the closer they’d be to the Castle, and to his house in Castle Town…

Epona was attuned to Link’s barely controlled fear, she head-butted him several times, as if she was asking what was wrong, whilst he gave her a quick brush because he’d forgotten to do so before, putting the saddle on as soon as he finished. He grabbed an apple from the tree and fed it to her- but she wasn’t pacified, she instead laid her head on his shoulder. Link took deep breaths, combing his fingers through her mane, and tried to clump together the remaining crumbs of his composure. He could see his father’s shadow stretching across the bridge as he returned, and he clambered onto Epona, giving his father a nod. Alleyn had ridden Dusk- aptly named because her entire coat was jet black, even her mane. Her mood seemed to match his father’s entirely; it was eerily accurate. Epona huffed at Dusk, before stomping aggressively. Link could appreciate the sentiment, he wished he could do the same against his father. 

The squadron of Royal Guards looked down on him, all in their fancy armour, with Royal Broadswords strapped across their waists. All had the prized Hylian shield, across their backs and they screamed regalia and rules- their dominance as the superior sector of Hyrule’s forces was undeniable. Alleyn went out in front, at a canter, and the squadron eased out of Hateno, Link following a few paces behind. Epona didn’t like being last, she twisted and turned and would have flown right out, beating them all, but she obeyed his unspoken commands, _finally_ , and relented. She snorted viciously in his direction though, clearly upset. Link would have to invest in at least 5 sugar cubes at this rate (difficult considering currently he only had approx. 2 rupees to his name) to satisfy his big drama queen of a horse. Still, it made him smile a little, and for that he was grateful. 

Around every five minutes or so, the Guards would change formation, the first two slipping to the left and the two behind them coming up and taking their place. It was a way to ensure they remained focussed at all times. Link personally thought it was just a way to show off ~~uselessly fancy~~ dressage skills they wouldn’t use otherwise. Not that he would ever confess that to daddy dearest. Each time they pulled out though, they glanced back at him with disdain. 

Well hell, it wasn’t like he’d literally gone up to The Commander and been like “I wanna go with the Princess, ok, thanks bye” like a bratty teenager. Why weren’t they glaring at The Commander? It had literally been his whole idea. The fact that he wasn’t here didn’t matter- it really wasn’t Link’s fault! He wasn’t guilty of trespassing across Hyrule with the Princess dammit. The rest of the ride back transpired in a similar manner: glares, more glares, and even the odd snicker.

* * *

Hyrule Castle, 12:05 am

They had just entered the Central Castle Gates and were moving towards the Princess’s Room. She had gotten down from the carriage and looked like she’d had a long nap. Well at least one of them had been able to relax. Link shivered, the stares had increased until they were all encompassing, and two of them had dropped even further back, setting their horses alongside his, and it had a considerable amount of Link’s willpower to remain facing the ground the carriage was rolling on, and attempt to control Epona who was having none of it. 

The King of Hyrule was waiting- on the balcony between the First Gatehouse and the Princess’s Room. 

He had taken one long look at Zelda, and then marched past her, Link had been too far to hear what he had said- he had instead remained close to the First Gatehouse entrance as he waited for his father to come back. Zelda had her head bowed as she walked inside, and soon after Alleyn had appeared again. He flicked his wrist, tugging on Dusk’s reins towards the Castle Garrison, irritation laced in his movements, and Link followed, silently. 

The Stable Master had already gone to sleep, so they tacked down and brushed the horses themselves, before filling up the trill with fresh oats. Link had snuck Epona 2 sugar cubes and whilst she’d enjoyed them, she’d also snorted at him for more. He rubbed her head good naturedly, and then his father strode out of the Garrison, the rage bubbling ever so slightly to the surface and Link continued to silently follow, his fear having notched up a level up now that he didn’t even have Epona’s company. 

By the time they had reached the southernmost part of the residential area in Castle Town, Link could almost see the effort his father was having to exert to keep his composure and stop the anger exploding out. 

They reached their humble three-room house, the first room being a general kitchen/living/dining area, an actual bedroom on the right – his father’s and the second “room” that was more of a spare cupboard, that was Link’s, but the size never really bothered him- it wasn’t like he had many possessions stored here anyway. 

His father pulled out a chair, kept the lights off, and lit four candles placed on the table. Electricity wasn’t the cheapest commodity and they rarely used it- preferring to use small stub ends of candles scavenged from the Castle. 

He grasped a candle in his hand, and twirled it around, and Link’s eyes instinctually followed the flame, leaving a bluish-green glow in his visual field in the aftermath. 

“Let us clean our weapons first.” And even though it had been “us”, Link knew in reality, it would just be him. Link followed the order, and he left the bag his mother gave by the door, moving into the small backyard outside and he removed his sword, shield, and bow, placing the quiver next to it. By moonlight, he systematically wiped down his father’s, and then his own weapons. He remained with the Hylian Shield for some time, admiring its beauty. He placed them out to dry, and fished out his whetting stone, going over the blades a few times to make sure they remained razor sharp. 

His father had since removed his cape and had come to lean against the doorway watching him. 

Link progressed to checking the bow strings of each bow, and sadly they were both still taunt. The grip was still stable, and everything was still attached in place. He hadn’t been expecting any damage- he’d only used the bow 5 times, so it was too early to wax the string, and his fathers still looked unused. He ran out of things to do, and slowly raised his eyes to meet his father’s. A smile was stretched across his face, and Alleyn headed back inside, the unspoken order to follow pressed on Link. His father had already placed a chair in the dining room against the table, away from the light. 

“Sit down, Link.” Link obeyed, as he always did. 

Alleyn began to pace around him. By the time he’d gotten to round four, the candle stub he had been holding had snuffed out. And Alleyn swiped his hand across the remaining one that stayed lit. It was now pitch black. 

The silence was unnerving, Link could only hear his father’s harsher breaths and his own smaller, muffled ones. 

Link felt the tension build, he could feel his limbs vibrating, the absence of his sword had become a gaping hole. He would have settled for an arrow, anything, that he could just hold in his hand and pretend to have some semblance of self-defence.

Alleyn placed both hands on the back of his chair, and he slowly applied pressure so that the front legs of the chair lifted off the ground. Link wrestled with the nausea that suddenly hit, as the room tilted and he struggled to maintain composure, and balance, as the fear from falling off the seat and what was going to happen next thrummed through his veins. His father whispered from behind him, in his left ear, “Why don’t you explain, what happened, from the start.” He paused. “I see you passed your Knight exam- you received the weaponry for it.” Link’s heart rate spiked, and he fought the urge to stand up, away from his father’s breaths on his nape, away from this damn chair where he felt so powerless. He battled the overwhelmingly need to hold some sort of weapon. 

No congratulations, no well done, no pat on the back, nothing. Link shouldn’t be surprised really, but after a 5-week exam he’d at least hoped his father would be a little bit proud of him. He took a deep breath, trying to stop shivering in response to the puffs of air going down his back, and whispered out, “I had just completed the last stealth trial-”

“Yes, obviously you did, otherwise The Commander wouldn’t have given you clearance for the weapons.” His voice took on a darker tone, “He was _laughing_ whilst he recounted the story though. Care to tell me what he found so funny, _Link_?” 

Every hiss seemed to reverberate down Link’s spine, and blood rushed to his ears. It took _all_ his self-control to grip the seat edge tightly with both hands, if he could see his knuckles, they would have gone white. Every muscle in his body was tensed, every joint was fixated. He didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t The Commander after all, surely his father knew that at least. “It is not for me to speak for what The Commander finds funny.”

His father wheezed, in a contemptuous laughter, “ _Oho_! Become too smart for your own boots?” The chair tilted further back, and Link genuinely thought his heart had reached his throat. And then suddenly Alleyn was deadly serious again, this time talking in Link’s right ear, “Talking back now, are we?” 

He let go of the chair, and the seat, alongside Link, banged to the floor, the vertigo hitting hard, and his knees reverberated with the shock wave that pulsed through. Link couldn’t hear past the blood rushing in his ears, couldn’t see in the darkness, and he felt everything constrict as fear overwhelmed him. His breaths came in hard and fast, and Link wrestled with himself to get some semblance of control, he couldn’t and wouldn’t break down in front of his father. Alleyn whipped around; now facing Link, his eyes wide, unfocused, too lost in the rage. 

This was what Link truly feared. Unlike most Royal Guards, Alleyn didn’t have one of the two most common vices: a mistress or an alcohol dependence. No, his weakness, or rather his strength depending on who you asked, was his wrath. He was just too hot-blooded for his own good. His fury, that he held onto with an iron fist, was what drove him to become a Knight- which he had in all likelihood signed up for the action and violence that he would be exposed to, and then arrogance had kicked in- the fact that there was a rank higher infuriated him, and he had become a Royal Guard. He got a sick satisfaction out of viciousness, and since he was promoted, there was no longer a constant opportunity of exacting that rage out- be it in assassinating monsters or interrogations with outlaws. 

He had, instead, found a new target, and that target had been Link. 

Ever since he was a child, his father had pushed him to do more, become better, stronger, a ruthless fighter. And he was sure, that if his father had worked from Hateno, instead of spending just the weekends at home with him, and without his mother as his pacifying, guiding light, Link would have become a merciless, cold-blooded assassin. His mother had taught him how to be a good person, how to care, how to value emotion. That photo by the waterfall- his father had taunted him, and a five-year-old he hadn’t understood- “You’re too weak to climb up rocks, Link. You aren’t strong enough, _are you_?” He had smiled, almost pityingly, and mockingly laughed at him. It was his most vivid memory from that age, and Link could still picture it to this day. And he’d so desperately wanted to prove his father wrong, and he had so frantically wanted to reassure his father that no, he wasn’t weak, and he could do it! And despite nearly slipping on the wet rocks, his father hadn’t come to help him, no, instead he had taken a picture. And the next weekend, when he arrived home, and Link had gone to hug him, Alleyn pulled out the picture on his slate, “No hugs until you can climb the whole thing Link.” Accompanied, again, by that pitying smile, and mocking laughter. And so, he had worked hard, every day he swam up to the rock edge, and then slowly, painstakingly found the right handholds, and by the time the fifth week came- after four weeks of no hugs, he had managed to do it, and his father came home, with the picture now framed. “Always learn from your failures, Link.” And had finally given him a hug. He hadn’t gotten a compliment then, his father simply moved onto the next challenge. 

Alleyn had always handled these “tasks” in a joking way with his mother- “There’s no harm in encouraging him to do some exercise, Eliana. You worry about him too much. He needs to toughen up.” And despite her pleas, his father continued to set goals, each time laughing when Link couldn’t do it, and Link had continued _on and on_ , in a fruitless and useless endeavour to please him, (only one more challenge Link, and he’ll say he’s proud of you!). And soon, his mother assumed he was enjoying it, and he hadn’t said anything to her for fear of his father finding out somehow. It would have brought such shame if Alleyn had found out his son couldn’t cope with his “simple tests”. It had been a constant in his life- fulfil each trial, do what father wants, and hopefully, he will look at you differently. Hopefully, one day he would look at you without pity, or humiliating laughter. Hopefully, one day, he would be proud of you. 

“Why are you so silent, Link? What are you thinking about?” _How much of a brutal father you are_ didn’t really seem like a good answer? So, Link continued to remain silent. 

Alleyn finally shifted back, and Link stifled a sigh of relief. He instead pulled out a chair and sat directly opposite Link. His arms balanced across the back of the chair, his nose practically against Link’s own. This was worse. He could see the feral, manic glint in his eyes this close. “I have three questions, and _you will answer them_. One, why did The Commander assign you to protect the Princess? Two, how did you get injured? And three, do you like the Princess?” 

Link stumbled mentally. He had regained his composure, and since he couldn’t make out Alleyn’s face in the dark, he assumed his father couldn’t see his, so he didn’t have to worry about his face betraying him by looking guilty. He hadn’t been expecting the last question. And he had no idea how to answer the first without infuriating Alleyn more and what exactly was he supposed to say for the second? If he confessed what had actually hurt him- the glass shard then hopefully that would go down better than a stray arrow at the stable. But what if Impa had told his father it was a fight at Wetland stable? 

The silence stretched out, as Link fought with indecision over what to say. Alleyn blinked once and moved even closer. Link could feel his father’s breaths fall on his nose, and it was highly uncomfortable but nothing about this situation was ok, and there was nothing he could do. 

“ **Now**. Link.” 

An uncurrent of irritation and fury surged through those two words. If he didn’t answer soon, perhaps his father would do more than just scare the living daylights out of him, and he might cross a boundary he never had before. 

He blurted it out. “The Commander assigned me as protect Her Royal Highness because I happened to be… on hand when she was leaving, and she would have left without any protection otherwise. I got injured protecting the Princess from a glass shard, um, ice arrows were fired at the glass window which couldn’t handle the, well, damage and fractured. And I respect the Princess. I _do not_ … like her. That would be against Knight Honours- and I would never betray my code of honour, as you well taught me.”

Spirits. He’d gone for the glass shard, which would hopefully put him in a better light than an arrow he should have seen coming. And he doubted Alleyn would have stayed at Impa’s hut for long, he would have been keen to find the Princess as soon as possible so in all likelihood she wouldn’t have had the time to give details. Even if she did, he’d been careful not to mention where the glass window was exactly. No one had to know it was actually on the train. That and he had a feeling his father would call his bluff if he said something about not seeing an arrow. Link hoped that would be good enough. He prayed his hardest to Farore that would be good enough. He had never outwardly lied to his father before, but he just couldn’t admit to becoming friends with Zelda and he fervently wished that Alleyn wouldn’t ask more questions because otherwise he would be found out. And hopefully, simply saying the word honour would be sufficient, because it was the only thing Alleyn valued. Honour in justice was his motto that covered his violent streak. 

Alleyn smiled, that pitying one, yet again. Link wondered if his father would ever smile at him with love and respect, instead of constant disappointment. “Well lucky you, to have been _on hand_.” His eyes narrowed, “Next time use a shield to protect yourself Link. I thought I had already taught you how to defend yourself. A glass shard is no different to an arrow or a blade. All three may injure and even kill you. I expect better next time. And of course, I agree, liking royalty has never boded well for any Knight.” He sighed, and Link swallowed down a huge sigh of relief that threatened to leave his lips. “You may go to sleep, Link. It has been a long, trying day, for us all.” Alleyn stood, finally leaving Link’s personal space, and made his way to the grimy window, looking out. 

Link jumped up from his seat, trying to not seem enthusiastic that the interrogation was over, and he tried not to run the few steps to his cupboard room. 

He reached it, and shut the door, locking it and he walloped onto the bed, his back on the duvet, although it was at an awkward angle and his legs were bent in the tiny gap between the door and the bed. He slowly breathed out and took a few minutes to get his heart rate back to normal. He was so relieved that he’d come out relatively unscathed; he finally felt safe, after 5 hours of mounting adrenaline-fueled fear. 

He stood up and went to his small chest of drawers- there was just enough space for it at the end of his bed. He changed into his pyjamas, the t-shirt with the giant lobster on it, and as he folded up his trousers- he felt the box his mother had shoved in. 

He pulled it out, and went to lie on his stomach, flipping open the small latch. Inside was a pack of honeyed candy, and Link immediately popped one into his mouth. The crystallised honey melted delightfully on his tongue, and it soothed his soul, as he felt his mother’s love pour through, comforting him. There was something else too- it was a knitted blue hairband. It had a small note next to it- _I made something for you too, my vagrant. I know it will match perfectly with your eyes. When are you coming home again? Mama will make everything you want._

Link smiled, his first since leaving Zelda. His mother had taken to calling him a vagrant since he moved out and no longer lived with her. He’d become _a vagrant of Castle Town, who abandoned his home with his mother!_ and it had, after two years of repeated use, stuck and remained as her nickname for him. Link briefly wondered if other parents gave their children insulting nicknames, before he stuffed another honeyed candy in. He already missed his mother; he hadn’t gone back to Hateno in so long. He would request a few days off from The Commander and take longer break. Once he had swallowed the sweet, he used his small wash basin by the door to rinse his face and teeth before climbing into bed, letting exhaustion finally take over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off I apologise for not uploading last Wednesday, I just ran out of time with uni things, and as this was a heavier chapter I didn't want to rush it. Also, I was somewhat insecure about posting this for some reason, but I hope I've done it justice- I'd appreciate any feedback!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Zelda's turn to face the music.

Zelda’s POV

Hyrule Castle, Sanctum.  
Thursday, 11:00 am

One of Zelda’s least favourite rooms in the Castle was the Sanctum. It was imposing, with incredibly long banners embroidered with The Royal Family’s Symbol fluttering from the Second Balcony, and thick velvet carpets coated the floor, decorated with the Crest of Din, Nayru and Farore in each of the outermost triangles with the Hyrulian Crest in the centre. The carpet muffled sounds but cracked up a small dust storm every time you walked across it. The twin staircases curled like snakes to the Balcony above, the soft glow of electric lights placed underneath giving it another-worldly glow. The Sanctum had high arched windows, and Zelda liked how in sunny weather, the sunlight filtered through, cascading down, helping to lift up the whole room. Today, however, it was a cloudy morning, and as such, the room felt damp, dreary and depressing, the dark shadows seemed to extend out, adding to the already suffocated atmosphere. 

That being said, this room was where all the major decisions the Kingdom made were passed into law, and she liked being able to see what she’d been taught be put into practice. Okay, perhaps diplomacy didn’t always end well, and clashes were a common occurrence, but whenever she had ideas, those were listened to, and sometimes accepted. It made her feel useful, being able to do implement things she thought would be helpful for the country. 

Now she thought about it, it wasn’t so much the room itself that she disliked, it was more so the most commonly occurring reason for her to visit: her father summoning her in some form. This was the one place she would meet him, at least, since she could remember, and more often than not it was a lecture of some sort. Last night, well technically, early today because it had been past midnight, was the only time she could remember her father actually coming so close to her own quarters. He’d come as King Rhoam Hyrule and had issues a three-worded command: “Tomorrow, Sanctum, 11 am,” before storming past her.

Zelda stifled back a yawn, she’d only done the bare basics when they’d arrived at the Castle, removing her bow and cape, plus a very quick shower and she had then plopped down on the silk sheets, and had fallen asleep immediately, not paying much heed to the warning in his tone. Even after waking up at 10:45, she still felt tired, it had been close to 1 am by the time she had finally fallen asleep. And the whirlwind of activity once she had woken up so late hadn’t helped either- she had literally shoved on the first royal blue dress her maids had pulled out from the walk-in closet and had savagely racked a brush through her hair (cursing it for how long it was), with no time to braid it, instead looping it into her tiara, before semi-sprinting up to the Sanctum. She would be lying if she hadn’t used magensis linking to make the journey go faster. She’d entered by a small side entrance- at the front of the hall instead of the main entrance and had come to take her place in front of her father’s watchful gaze, in the middle of the Crest of Hyrule. 

The King was sitting down, shrouded in quiet, and fingers interlocked as he balanced his multiple chins on them. Zelda felt that the physical distance between them made everything more bearable. She wasn’t about to clamber up all 180 steps unless he commanded her too. He continued to stare, and she fought the urge to fidget with her hair- she was sure it didn’t look good enough, but hopefully he wouldn’t be able to make out all the details from that far away. 

The seconds ticked by, and as her father continued to hold his silence, thus choosing to waste his time and hers by glaring down at her, Zelda let her mind wander. 

First, she assessed the reason why she was here in the first place. Who did her father think he was, sending out Royal Guards left, right, centre after her? Seriously, Zelda _had had enough_ of everyone assuming she was weak and frilly. Ok, sure, she didn’t completely mind Link- he actually made the day better, and she couldn’t deny that he did help her out of a few tight spots. That and with their new friendship, perhaps a companion wouldn’t be so bad. But and this was the big but, she didn’t need a squadron of 8 guards in lieu of the one. She didn’t need to be boxed away, with Royal Guards prattling around said carriage. Surely with all the movements they did, they couldn’t actually pay attention to the road and any threats? The King had even gone so far as to _pull rank_ over The Commander- over her “security”- something that he was no expert in. Personally, if The Commander, the person in charge of Hyrule’s Armies, and Royal Family’s protection, thought she would be perfectly safe with Link, and with her own skills, then she would accept his authority on the matter. There had been no need to overexaggerate and send out a Decree! A Decree, Hylia above! And frankly, this was just a show, a spectacle to illustrate just how much he _cared_ about ~~her~~ the Princess. 

Instead of dwelling too long down that pathway, she thought instead about what she could remember of Alleyn. He wouldn’t have been her first guess as Link’s father, although they did share the same dirty blonde hair, Link’s was significantly more unruly compared to what she could remember of Alleyn’s. Alleyn had been mainly assigned to her father’s protection - he was always chosen to protect the King on his frequent hunting sessions, and Zelda knew for a fact that they both greatly enjoyed that sport together. It had been the day after the National Mourning Day for her mother’s fifth death anniversary, and she had gone out to search of her father, thinking they could mourn in private for her together, away from the nation’s prying eyes, but he had left for a hunt the night before, and had just come back in that morning. His eyes had a wild look to them, his forehead covered in a sheen of sweat and Alleyn had been by his side, the two of them snickering, a cart behind them piled high with bodies. Zelda couldn’t stomach looking at all those deer killed for such a frivolous reason, and had snuck away, feeling sick to her stomach. 

Her father had commemorated her mother’s death by going on a killing spree. 

And from that day forward, she had mourned for her mother privately, sometimes accompanied by Impa. Ah, she didn’t want to think about her father’s blatant disrespect either. She refocused- where else had she seen Alleyn? Oh! He had accompanied them on the occasional event or festival in the surrounding villages of Hyrule which required Royal Presence. He seemed to enjoy the customs and rituals of honour and propriety. And that had been very evident from how he had reacted when he had found out Zelda had dined in his house. “ _On our plates_ ” What did he think? That Zelda was so above them that she would be ashamed? Did he not understand that a Princess, or even a Royal Family as a whole, was nothing without its People?

She thought about how he had almost challenged her- and deemed her too dumb to know what would be good for her protection. Truthfully, she couldn’t claim to be an expert, but why did all of these people refute The Commander’s instructions? The strangest thing she had noticed though, was when he had discovered Link had been injured. Surely, any father would have been more concerned for their son? Alleyn had… behaved rather oddly. He didn’t strike Zelda as an overly caring type, but maybe that wasn’t the role of a father in general, _her father_ certainty matched that bill perfectly. And as Zelda couldn’t remember her own mother, (which sent another sharp stab of pain to her heart, but she ploughed on, _this was rational reasoning_ ), so she couldn’t really compare the two parenting roles. 

Rhoam finally stood. Apparently, after 5 continuous minutes of silence, he realised how much of a useless endeavour that was, she wasn’t about to succumb to the pressure first. He stepped off his giant throne (which had been remade three times now to cope with his ever-expanding bulk) and had come to the Balcony. He rested his hands down on it, probably to support his weight and/or look imposing. But Zelda wasn’t scared. She wouldn’t allow herself to be afraid of him. 

“Zelda.” Oh. Well, that was a change from Princess. Although Zelda didn’t know if he meant it as an endearment or if it was a taunt. He didn’t really spend much time with her, after all, for her to learn to differentiate the two from his tone.

Rhoam sighed. Aw, did daddy dearest want a chocolate muffin? Or perhaps some honeyed candy?

“I understand, you wanted to travel to Hateno alone, but surely you realise that in these trying times we need you to be as safe as can be?” 

… ?! He was actually being reasonable? Too bad Zelda was still feeling sleep-deprived and as such far too annoyed at how early it was to be up after a ridiculously long day. “I do not understand why The Commander’s authority on the matter of my safety is being questioned so. If he determined I would be safe, then surely we should accept his decision?”

Rhoam gave Zelda The Look. Zelda remained unperturbed. He could glare at her all he wanted but it wouldn’t change a thing. Looks were easy to evade, that was the first skill taught in Princess Etiquette.

Rhoam reattempted, “The Commander’s authority is not being questioned Zelda. We both know he was doing the best he could, _due to your demands_. You specifically sent the letter to me very late, past the time I would check, _deliberately_ , and you were _running away_ pre-dawn. If that Knight hadn’t caught you then, you would have gone alone. No one can really fault The Commander for at least attempting to send you with some form of protection- but you should have waited until a squadron could go with you.”

Damn. Guess The Commander really had spilled the beans, and not only that but Rhoam knew about the late letter too. Crap. 

“The letter from Impa specified I should leave early, and I had only gotten that letter the night before last-”

“Well, where is this letter?”

Spirits. She was losing and she was losing bad. Wait- NIKO- he could testify! 

“I have already disposed of the letter- I didn’t deem it relevant to keep at the time, but Niko- a Rito Messenger should be able to testify how late he had delivered it.”

Rhoam nodded- and flicked a wrist at one of the Guards on duty. He scurried off, probably to find Niko. HAH she still had game. Now it was time to go in for the kill. She couldn’t allow him to say anything else or she’d lose her advantage. 

“First off, _father_ , I have gone on many a research trip before, not just in Castle Town, but also in Hyrule Field _alone_. These trips have remained unproblematic until now, so what’s changed? At least this time, I was accompanied with a Knight.” Rhoam looked uncomfortable. Perfect. Zelda began to pace. 

“Wait.” Zelda stopped waking, looked down, and saw she was on Nayru’s Crest. “You do realise, Zelda, that you were never left alone? Surely to think otherwise would be foolish on your part, something I wouldn’t have expected of _you_.” Zelda felt herself start to blush, his taunt just about getting under her skin. “You always had a group of Sheikah Shadows following you. And they all left to go to Hateno this past month due to the prophecy we received, thereby leaving you unprotected.” He narrowed his eyes at her, “Prior to this, The Commander, and I agree with him, believed you would be safer dressed inconspicuously, with shadows to ensure your safety instead of a legion of Royal Guards around you all the time.” He paused, “But things have changed, and we increased the Royal Guards on your detail for this very reason!” 

Din, Nayru and Farore. Ok. She had to change tactics. Oh no, wait, she’d found a loophole! She sent a quick prayer of thanks to Nayru. 

“The Commander informed me _yesterday morning_ that I wasn’t left completely alone, but surely you can see, _father_ , that prior to that, I _believed_ I was? And in my head, I’ve been allowed out before so this wouldn’t be an issue?”

Rhoam begrudgingly shook his head. “That was our fault, for not telling you the truth, and for assuming you’d know better.” That stung. How was she supposed to have known shadows were following her? They were shadows for Hylia’s sake! Okay, so she’d known that her ordinary Royal Guards had increased but she hadn’t known that Sheikah other than Impa were involved in her protection. He heaved a sigh, “Still, Zelda. I did not anticipate you leaving so fast with such little notice. Regardless, you must admit that you _were not_ prepared for such attacks- even with the Knight’s presence.”  
Right well, she was going to count that as a win- at least she was no longer being blamed for being reckless. Maybe she could appeal- if she looked demure then perhaps, he’d forgive her, and they could go back to ignoring each other and pretending to have a functional, caring relationship.

“If I may father?” He reluctantly nodded his consent, well, she had asked, and he had given her permission. “I would like to emphasize, that both Knight Link and I, fended off both attacks, without any injury to myself, the person whose protection, is in question. I ask you- how could a squadron of Royal Guards have anticipated glass fracturing due to ice arrows?” 

She paused there, lifting up her gaze to his, and Rhoam’s knuckles had turned white from the strain. Guess he finally remembered the connotations to that incident. “Wouldn’t it have caused more pandemonium to an already difficult situation if they scrambled to “Protect _The Princess_ ” and actually hurt me in the process?” She turned to face the opposite wall and started walking again, her hands on her hips. 

“Now, Zelda, I know you… I know what…” He went silent. Zelda waited, patiently at first because he was the King, and it would be disrespectful to interrupt, even though it was her turn to speak and he’d insulted her intellect multiple times already. 

After a minute of silence, she gave up, her already reduced reserves of patience completely depleted. “What is it, _father_?” Honestly, she had asked for permission to speak and now he wouldn’t give her the chance to do so, it was beyond infuriating. 

He sighed, even from this distance, she could see his chins wobbling through this thick beard. “We both know what the ice means. Are you… are you feeling alright?”

Zelda took an unconscious step back. She momentarily lost track of her thoughts, which had instead been replaced by a massive question mark. She had no data for this situation. She had nothing with which to compare. She couldn’t even remember the last time her father had asked her that question. This was… grossly unexpected, and she was stunned into silence.

He turned to look above her, “See, this is why you need the protection. You are a Child of Destiny, a Daughter of Hylia… You play a key role in the upcoming events, and we need to ensure your safety. I-”

Zelda was absolutely infuriated; his words had blown a huge hole inside of her. He was using her mother’s death and her apparent lack of response to mean she was overwhelmed and incapable. He was using her mother’s death to remind her of her duty. He didn’t actually care about her, or what she was truly feeling. Her anguish was simply a means to an end for him. Her mouth opened before she could process what she was saying. “Is that it? Is that the only reason why you need me alive? Was mother so worthless that the ice could consume her, and it wouldn’t matter?” 

Rhoam looked on aghast- he had started to shake his head. Well damn him! He needs to know that her deceased mother was more of a parent that he could ever be. “She matters to _me_ , _you_ might not have needed her, but _I_ needed her then, just as _I_ need her now.” She scoffed, “ _Do not_ patronise me- _I know_ I have a role to play, and _I know_ my safety is important- to the country obviously.” _Not to you_ , the one living person to whom it should matter the most. She felt tears prick her eyes, and she angrily shut them. She was completely worthless, as an individual, _as Zelda_ , to her own father. Even he used her. What sort of father couldn’t care if their child was okay? Regardless of their child’s destiny, or future, wasn’t it the responsibility of parents to look after, cherish and protect their child simply because it was innate to them? She needed rational thoughts to starve off the emptiness that threatened to consume her. 

She swallowed and winced when her voice cracked. “I was not yet finished with my point, Your Majesty.” She finally picked up the courage to glance at him, his face was pained, contorted and he had closed his eyes too. Words hurt. Perhaps words could hurt you more than a sword could. Physical pain was, for the most part, fixable, emotional pain… not so much. He barely nodded at her. What had happened to them? The physical distance between them seemed to mirror the emotional one. She could still remember the flower crowns they used to make together- the structure had fascinated her as child, and they had made one last one for her mother on her funeral, and Zelda still had that one in her keepsakes box. When had her father become so… indifferent to her?

Zelda’s head hurt, still, from yesterday, and now her heart ached alongside. She paused, and let her Princess Mask envelop her, she just wanted to finish this and go back to her room. “Let us consider the argument from the perspective of if I was placed in a carriage box- which you would have deemed completely protected?” Rhoam managed a proper nod this time, and Zelda forced her tears to vanish, if her father had recovered so fast, she could to. “It is evident, that the Royal Guards wouldn’t have been able to maintain control over their own horses, which would have been terrified from the arrows flying and perhaps would have even been frozen in place, _and_ supervise the horses pulling my carriage, _and_ shoot down the assailants. 

He frowned, “Zelda, they have been trained to attack on horseback, and they would have responded appropriately- this is why there are normally eight of them accompanying you, so that even if a few are taken out, the others remain.”

“I concur- but who would know what role to take on? You must accept, father, that they have no training for these scenarios, because _we’ve never seen_ monsters riding horses before. So, it would have been a very stressful and disorganised array, and if the horses carrying the carriage bolted with me inside?” Zelda gave a pointed look to her father, it was hard, trying to maintain eye contact, but she managed. He squirmed slightly. 

Rhoam stumbled, “But-”

Zelda pretended as if she hadn’t heard him. It wasn’t hard, she couldn’t stand to be in this room much longer, she felt suffocated, the weight of this power pressed heavily on her, and to know that this was the _only thing_ her father valued about her hurt. The only reason he cared for her safety was because of this power. The only reason they were even having this discussion was because of this Goddess-forsaken power. Not because she was Princess and heir to the Kingdom, no. Not even that. And definitely not because she was Zelda, his daughter. 

She sighed. “A final point Your Majesty- we must also realise, that these attacks are becoming more frequent- we need a solution to control the growing monster infestation, not worry and stress over sending out eight guards following me, when I have proved I am fine with just the one- I came back without a scratch.” 

Rhoam nodded, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. Perhaps he was more affected than she assumed. Either way, she couldn’t find it in her to particularly care at that minute, she just wanted to leave. 

She continued, “Surely- a better solution for my safety, as well as the country’s civilians, would be to eliminate the monsters? I stopped by at Wetland Stable, Your Majesty, and the Stable Master, Lawdon, complained of a rise in monster attacks that were damaging his business, and profit margins.” If there was one thing she could count on with regards to her father, is that he was, well, money orientated. Every venture Hyrule took, had to have a financial benefit of sorts, so she added that in to help refocus him. Once he started to think about money, everything else took a secondary seat. It wasn’t like he thought about her much anyway. 

And true to form, he was sufficiently distracted by the alarm bell of decreasing rupees. “I will look into what we can do to help the Stables, Princess, thank you for bringing it to my attention.” He frowned, and looked down at her, his nose in the air, “You _will_ inform the appropriate people, where time permits, a week in advance about your next trip, and have Royal Guards accompany you. However, the precise number will be determined by The Commander. I will accept his authority on the matter of course.” Well that the best she could hope for, and it sounded like a dismissal was coming soon. She really hoped it would be in the next sentence. He exhaled slowly, and just then Niko came bumbling in. 

Niko hastened into a bow, coming to stand a distance away from Zelda. 

Rhoam nodded, “Rise, Messenger. This is a just a simple question- you delivered a letter to my daughter the night before last, yes?” Niko slowly nodded. “Good- we just need you to confirm what time you arrived with the notice from Impa to the Princess?”

Niko gave a quick half-nod, “Just a second…” He pulled out his slate, “Your Majesty, I can attest that I received the letter around 6 pm from the Castle Town Messengers, at the East Post, and had delivered it to the Princess at around… 7 pm.” 

Rhoam nodded and made a flick with his hand. “Thank you, you are dismissed.”

Niko stumbled towards the door before clapping a hand to his forehead- “I forgot to collect the post!” And he ran out, without glancing back.

Rhoam waved his hand at Zelda, “You are dismissed too, Princess. The midday hearings will start soon, and I need to prepare for those.”

Zelda nodded and promptly left, without glancing back.

* * *

Hyrule Castle, The Royal Library 5 pm

Zelda had spent the past 5 hours touring the Historical section of the library. The library was by far her favourite room in the Castle. It wasn’t really a “room”, more of an entire wing- spanning 3 whole floors. Everything was furnished in ornate oak wood, and the electric lights were smaller and less harsh than the ones conventionally used. The first floor (which was technically underground) contained all the old journals, research articles and newspapers – a sort of archive of sorts. You could access it by going down the narrowed side staircase, but Zelda rarely went down there, only occasionally for the odd research article she had found a reference for and wanted to check herself. The main floor that you walked into was a huge domed structure, with one major grand staircase at the floor, that then split into two, curving up at each side to reach the upper levels- where fiction books resided. The main floor was the non-fiction section in the library- the front area contained the recent journals, and the rest of was organised by topic- ranging from languages, to technology, to geography and history. Zelda had spent the majority of her childhood roaming these walkways, and had read a good portion of everything, but she still had so many more on her reading list. It would appear to remain that for now, anyway, she’d have to abandon that and instead focus on this… power. 

Zelda had run all the way to the library, and then had spent around 15 minutes trying to recompose herself. Her father’s opinion was not what she centred her life around. She was important, not just as the only Hylian who could access the sealing power, or as a Princess, just Zelda was enough. As hard as she tried though, she couldn’t stop thinking about how he had effectively reduced her entire being down to a single objective. A small part of her just wanted to refuse. She didn’t sign up for this destiny, she didn’t sign up for this power, she didn’t sign up for a father who only cared about said power. She immediately cast that thought away though, she wouldn’t find this power for her father to be happy with her, she was going to access this power to save her people. Yes, she hadn’t signed up for it, but it had been assigned to her, and she wasn’t so selfish as to doom her country, she would do her best. 

After taking a deep breath, she headed over to the giant automated screen- and typed in a few keywords such as scared blessing/power, legend, Hyrule history etc, and the machine generated a predetermined list of books she should check out. Most were in the history subdivision- which was probably the section in which she had read the least, simply because she had enough courses on that in her own tutoring and hadn’t really been that interested in reading up more. She pulled out around 15 different books on the Hyrulean and Hylian Legends and had sat down on one of the big poofy bean bags, a small lamplight turned on, and started to read. 

Five hours later and Zelda’s eyes had started to blur. She heard a growl, and belatedly realised that it was from her own stomach and that she had forgotten to eat all day. She’d finished off three of the books, and the one she was currently reading had been an unexpected emotional ride. It detailed the legend of the Hero of Time and how the Princess Zelda of that era was rumoured to have taken on an alter ego in order to help the civilians in Hyrule whilst she waited for the Hero to grow up. It sounded like something straight out a fairy tale, and those fiction books about Princesses she used to read when she was younger. Honestly, it was a welcome distraction from the charred remains of her relationship with her father. It was weird to realise that this… actually happened? Zelda couldn’t imagine trying to pass off as a boy. It would have involved so much secrecy, and here she was complaining about the double faces of everyone in court. At least she didn’t have to conceal her identity, that would make life so much harder. The story was a tragic one though, because when the Hero and the Princess did finally reunite, and sealed away Ganon, she had sent him back in time! 

Zelda’s mind was blown somewhat from the paradox. If she had sent him back, then technically someone else must have grown up in his place in the world that they had saved? Oh, wait theoretically if she had sent him back before Ganon presumably killed the King and had taken Hyrule Castle by force, then they could have stopped the whole thing from happening, in that timeline. But did that Princess, in the world the Hero was sent back too, did she remember the Hero? Who had presumably not lost his memories from being an adult, because otherwise how would they save the kingdom? But what happened to the Princess left behind, after fighting for seven years, in the burnt, scarred, half-destroyed world they had saved together? The whole story was tragic, and even though it wasn’t really said, the legend gave enough hints that there was something more between that Princess and her Hero. And to think they had been separated so cruelly- one left alone in a world that had been ravaged, and another sent back to a world unaffected but without anyone who knew who he was and what had he had prevented… 

There were a whole host of other questions she had, from the Hero’s perspective. Did he remember being a child as an adult? Was he mentally… still a child? And she couldn’t begin to think of the body dysmorphia that would inevitably result. She paused, actually, the Hero’s story reminded her of Purah. Did Purah remember her childhood days after ageing? Was Purah still childlike in mind? 

To distract herself from the sadness of the tale, she pulled out her slate and updated what she had learnt into the Journal Rune. The one thing she could take away from this story, was that at least she was already a teenager- and if the Hero’s soul was entwined with hers then he would be one too. There wouldn’t be any… waiting. Or time paradoxes to deal with. And fortuitously, they had foresight that Ganon was coming, and subsequently would also develop the technology needed to trap him. Unfortunately, she hadn’t really learnt much about her powers. It seemed that Princess just… sealed Ganon away once the Hero had wounded him enough. Zelda really hoped she figured out just what, exactly, she was supposed to do to awaken the power _before_ meeting Ganon, but she couldn’t really rule out that maybe the power would naturally make itself known when she was in the vicinity of the beast. Actually. The Princess in the legend had come across Ganon as a child, right? Perhaps that is what stimulated her powers- seeing Ganon and then she simply used it in the final fight with the Hero all those years later. She added that to her notes, and then headed down to the Dining Room for an early dinner. And hopefully a slice of fruitcake.

* * *

The Princess’s Bedroom, 8:30 pm

Later that night, as Zelda was finally back under her Rito-feather down duvet, after having taken a longer shower to brush out all the hidden knots in her hair from her rash treatment this morning, she pulled out her slate and looked over the one picture present in the Hero of Time’s Legend. It was a simple portrait, of a Castle Courtyard, with a young boy, a small fairy by his shoulder, and the Princess sitting by one of the flower beds. It had a faded brown tint to it, and various smudges, all along the border and an especially large one in the bottom left- where Zelda presumed the signature of the artist would be, and as a result she couldn’t make out any of the letters. Zelda wondered if the two had been friends as children, before destiny had decided to get in the way and completely alter their lives. But then, she shook herself out of the past, it wouldn’t do to become too emotionally entrenched in a story- she had to look for the facts and what she herself could use in her own upcoming battle. She set an early alarm on her slate and began to mentally prepare for tomorrow- it would be Day 1 of the Annual Meeting and hopefully all would go well. She still wasn’t sure how she would confess that her apparent birth right sealing powers were not actually birth right at all and she had no clue how to access them, but Zelda had enough evidence to prove that perhaps it developed with time. She just had to emphasize that she will do her best to uncover it- and hope that Impa’s plan will work. She bit back a chuckle at the thought of her father allowing her to go on a tour of the kingdom. Hah the decades it would take for all those guards to mobilise. She shrugged off that disturbing mental image, and with that she turned off her slate, and put it on her bedside table, switched off the light and settled back down into her covers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos! I never thought I’d reach 60 haha, thanks guys! 
> 
> Next chapter will probably be a little delayed- I'm doing a prompt exchange (obviously featuring Zelink) with my friend who kindly beta-reads this fic for me aha. So I might publish that at some point instead. 
> 
> Age of calamity spoiler alert please avoid reading the next bit:
> 
> I also wrote a short fic about Mipha's _engagement_ present and how it could have ended up in Link's hands without her actually giving it to him. And I'll post that one once I edit it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link catches up with his friends!

Link’s POV

Hyrule Castle Entrance, West Gate, 10:30 am

It had been 20 minutes since he had left home, and the Castle gates were nearly in sight. He had received early morning post, a rarity, but he had, unfortunately, slept through it. It didn’t matter though- The Commander had wanted a debrief at 11 am and Link was still going to be early. 

He decided to change course and head for the lower Garrison level instead of The Commander’s office on the second floor- he would still have 20 minutes before his meeting by the time he reached the Garrison, and he wanted to just meditate with his sword for a bit before recounting everything that had happened yesterday. 

He pushed open the door, and aiming for the sword rack, when a torrent of shouts erupted. Link had already fitfully grabbed his sword handle, before realising it was simply all the Guards, Knights and the trainees laughing and whooping at his arrival. Several of them had brought in pink confetti, probably their idea of a joke, and were throwing it over him like he was some sort of bride. 

Bazz, a Zora, one of the newly inaugurated members of Hyrule’s Navy Force, and one of his best friends, hustled in front of the crowd- flowering confetti right at Link’s face. Link violently coughed in reaction, grabbing some of the pink fluff that had landed in his hair and chucking it right back. It didn’t make much of a difference, but at least his aim was on point and it landed in Bazz’s eye. Whilst rubbing said eye, Bazz did a chef’s kiss in Link’s direction whilst smirking, “OI! Linky! When did you develop the guts to go abduct Her Royal Highness, the darling Princess?” Everyone burst into a fresh round of jeers. Link wanted to sink into a hole in the ground and not come out again, his cheeks flushed, and he wanted to thump Bazz a good one. 

Granté, another good friend clapped his hands around Link’s shoulders, “No one is going to accept your silence today. You, mister, need to spill the beans.” He was a Sheikah- and was a Knight in training, much like Link had been, except he had remained in that position for around seven years now. 

Someone had produced a chair, and then Granté rudely shoved him into it so he was now sitting down. Well, it looked like he wouldn’t move from this seat until they had all finished their interrogation. 

Ravio turned up at the door then, “What’s going on boys, I heard all the commotion all the way down from the Armoury and came to see what has gotten you all so excited…” His eyes fell onto Link who was still in the centre of the crowd, and thankfully the confetti was now floating around his knees instead of his face, “LINK! YOU DIDN’T VISIT ME, I THOUGHT YOU BROKE SOMETHING…” and then he seemed to realise there was a party going on, and he joined in- using his Tornado Rod to stir all the confetti back into the air again, and everyone simultaneously hollered. Link smiled along with the rest of them, and soon enough he was laughing. Although, he felt a headache start to creep up, and really, whilst he loved his friends and the community feel the soldier’s garrison had; he was still feeling tired from yesterday and he really hadn’t wanted to talk about what had happened _twice_. Bazz swopped down, and pulled another chair out, leaning across to reach Link’s side, with all of them following, and within 5 seconds, a semi-circle crowd of chairs had formed all around Link’s seat. 

His mentor, Alfonso, an older, and much… larger Knight, waded through the crowd and came up to Link, picking him right up by his collar, and Link couldn’t stop the _oof!_ that popped out. “You didn’t misbehave did you, Link?” Link fervently shook his head, “Good.” And with that he was set back down on Hyrule’s blessed land, feeling slightly dizzy. Alfonso was Link’s one-hand and two-handed weapon mentor- and had supervised Link throughout his time at the Castle. He was large part of why Link was the youngest Knight to qualify due to all the extra training and guidance he had provided, free of charge because he knew Link couldn’t afford the extra tuition classes. Alfonso rested a burly arm on his shoulder and Link had to resist sagging underneath the muscle weight. Honestly, this was harder than weightlifting. “So, go on, spill.”

Link sighed again. And then gave up. He directed towards the general crowd, “What do you know, and what do you want to know?” that was met with a series of ohhhhs along with one shout of “Everything son!”

Ravio chuckled, “The Commander bustled into the Garrison at lunch yesterday, in fits of laughter, as he recounted how, exactly, you had captured the wrong fugitive. I, and probably all the boys here, want to know _all_ the details.” He wrangled his eyebrows suggestively, cupping his chin with one hand. Link had a sudden flashback to Zelda doing the same thing, the wind blowing her loose hair, and he had to resist blushing because if his cheeks dared betray him here, there would be no end to the teasing and jests. 

Alfonso turned a shade darker, “You. Did. What?” His arms were already reached out, ready to grab Link’s collar again and Link automatically shifted slightly. Not that it would do much good, but he could at least try to avoid getting a concussion against his own skull. 

Bazz stepped in, “I’m sure nothing _too_ bad happened, Alfonso, you know The Commander jokes about everything.” Alfonso didn’t look appeased, but he nodded slightly. “You weren’t in yesterday, big man?” 

“No. I, unlike the rest of you babies, actually have a life.”

Ravio nodded, his hand holding his chin moving in sync. “Sure, whatever makes you sleep easier.” 

Alfonso’s eyes narrowed. Great, now they would have to pacify the giant. Why couldn’t they all take a sheet out of his book, _silent until forced to speak_.

Bazz flicked Ravio’s forehead, but Link was distracted by Granté, who was chuckling silently. How?! Granté was flaunting his inner Sheikah Stealth, which infuriated Link, because he wanted to do the same, “I mean, he does have a much larger pay-check so perhaps he can actually afford to do things.” Bazz paled and then gave an overdramatic sigh. Granté continued, rounding to face Link, “But… we see your armour, Link. We know you passed- even if it wasn’t conventional at all. So, from now on, all the costs from every boy’s night’s out henceforth, is on you.” He gave a self-righteous nod, swiftly followed by Bazz and Ravio. Link shook his head, looking on them incredulously. Truth be told, his insides twisted when he heard the proclamation, his first thought being about his father, and how to answer for the 7 rupees he had already spent, and how a boy’s nights out would cost so much more. Alleyn had left early in the morning for dawn duty- apparently the King had to be up early, so he hadn’t gotten much rest before heading out again. Link had still been knocked out cold, so he hadn’t noticed his father’s departure- he had only saw on the calendar that Alleyn had had an early shift today. 

Ravio perked up at the mention of armour, and immediately did another spot check, “Oh Link, you’re missing arrows. You’ll have to come down so I can sign you out your next slot.” 

Alfonso screamed, “QUIET”. Obviously, the man’s patience had run out. Link could relate to that. 

Everyone turned to look at him. 

“Will someone, **please** , explain, _what the hell happened yesterday_?”

After much cajoling, Link had confessed to having technically kidnapped the Princess, but he hadn’t gotten much further because of all the hissing, snickering and laughter that had followed that statement. True to form, Alfonso had indeed picked him up, like he weighed the same as an apple, and given him a good shake, “DO YOU NOT HAVE EYES YOU FOOL. HOW COULD YOU MISTAKE A PRINCESS FOR A GUARD?” Bazz, Granté and Ravio had collectively laughed at his misfortune, whilst Bazz seemingly grew a little worried, a minute into the shaking, and had at least attempted to bring him back down, before receiving a good kick from Alfonso and he had slumped back into his chair, shaking his head slightly. 

Soon after, Link had told the riot of his impending meeting, and after a series of “Oh la la, golden prodigy is in trouble”, and various hmms and ahs he had finally left. 

The meeting with The Commander had been, blissfully, only a brief 15-minute conversation. Link pointed out where he had encountered the bokoblins, and The Commander had immediately dispatched a team of soldiers and knights to deal with them. Link also relayed Lawdon’s fears about rising monster attacks, and The Commander promised he would raise it up tomorrow at the Annual meeting when National Defence was discussed. Thankfully, Link hadn’t had to explain how, exactly, the first set of bokoblins had attacked the window without him realising, or why they had switched to horses from train travel. He’d requested some leave- as he hadn’t been home in 5 weeks whilst his exam went on, and The Commander had given him a long weekend- both Friday and Monday morning. Due to the short notice, he would have to be back by the afternoon instead of the next day because everyone was needed on hand to organise the ball that would end the Annual Meeting. Link didn’t mind- three whole days away from his father would be more than enough. He would go down and collect Epona later this afternoon, after leaving a letter for his father, and then Link would be back in Hateno, he felt his anticipation rise, and his stomach rejoice. The end of the meeting had really confused him though, The Commander had come round from his seat behind and had sat down on the side of his mahogany table next to Link and _had winked at him _, whispering, “So, how did it go with the Princess?” Link fought to maintain composure and not go all red in the face, and he’d managed to choke out a vague _fine, Sir _before The Commander had burst out laughing and had dismissed him. Great, now ever more rumours would spread. Link absolutely hated being at the centre of attention and now it seemed he would have a permanent target on his back.____

____Link had headed down to the empty First Gatehouse- it appeared the party was still going on in the Garrison and as much as he loved the boys, he really just wanted to work though his exercise regimen. (No, he hadn’t come here because he had seen a flimsy hallucination of a certain familiar silhouette with blonde hair. He sighed; he really needed to get a grip.) As he began his warm-up laps, Link wondered whether his father’s interrogation would continue after he had returned, or if he’d continue to ask three questions until Link would be caught out lying. The thought terrified him, and he worked through his paces with a new vigour. One day, he would be stronger. One day, he would have more courage. One day, he would confront his father. But he couldn’t yet, he was still too young and too weak. It was near 2:30 pm by the time Link finally finished, lowering the stone crusher he had been swinging for the past 20 minutes. His shoulders screamed with relief when he finally put it down._ _ _ _

____Bazz walked in, just as Link was finishing reorganising the weapons he had taken out. He came up and leant against the rack. “You alright Link? You seem even quieter than normal. Was everything ok on the trip?”_ _ _ _

____Link nodded, “I’m fine, just… tired. Everything’s okay.” He chucked, knocking his elbow with Bazz’s, “Look at you, being all worried.”_ _ _ _

____Bazz huffed, eyebrows raised, “You claim fatigue, but you’ve been here for four hours Link.” He continued to stare at Link, his fins crossed across his chest. “Did it happen again?”_ _ _ _

____Until the winter just gone by, Link had never told another soul about what occurred behind closed doors with his father. And he wouldn’t have confessed to Bazz either, except for how he had accidently walked in on Bazz’s father- The “Demon” Seggin, actually doing the same thing. A small squadron of trainee Knights, that included himself and Granté, alongside accomplished Knights such as Teba and Alfonso, as well as a few trainee members of the Navy had gone to newly relocated Zora’s Domain. There had been an infestation of lizalfos, that used shock arrows, rendering the Zora somewhat incapable of fighting them. So, their squadron had been sent to try to eliminate the monsters, by using a combination of the Zora’s surprise underwater attacks as well as the Knight’s attacking head-on to confuse them even further. The tactic had proved to be a success and within two hours, the monsters had been eliminated. Bazz had gotten a small sprain injury along his arm, probably from gripping his trident too harshly for so long as it had been his first time in combat defending his new home, and Link had accompanied him over to the medic tent, and then back to his temporary familial pool, as the domain was still under construction. He had left, but then realised he still had Bazz’s trident strapped to his back- he had taken it from Bazz once they had left the lizalfos, and he had completely forgotten to return the weapon back and he walked back in only to hear the achingly familiar insults and taunts._ _ _ _

____Link had felt an unnatural, and irrational fear creep up that his father had accompanied him here and had been looking on and been laughing every time Link had made a mistake, but then he’d heard a wheeze that sounded wet. And a voice that was harsher- older- than his father’s and he heard the tell-tale swishing of water as the Zora’s fins moved underwater, and he had realised that it was Seggin- Bazz’s father, not Alleyn, his own. And Link had felt overcome with grief that Bazz, his best friend, who constantly smiled, laughed and was their group joker, had experienced the same thing he had. Link couldn’t stand it, he had almost broken down just by the column, but he managed to hold it together until he had sprinted back into his bedroom at the local inn. He had never imagined that of all the people to have had the same experience as him- it would have been Bazz. He’d even met Sir Seggin before, and he hadn’t seemed… Then again, Link’s own father had managed to deceive his _mother_ for so long, it suddenly didn’t seem hard to see Seggin doing the same thing. After a night of no sleep, Link had gotten up from his bed at 3 am, and had headed over, and it appeared Bazz hadn’t slept either. They left the small circular sleeping area, and instead headed out over the worker’s bridge, the real thing was to be made of luminous stones and would arch high into the air, and they had barely begun building the columns as of yet. Bazz confirmed they’d actually been building prior to his birth- but they only very recently moved across, with the newly created familial pools. Link had been somewhat shocked, because that meant this was the culmination of what 100 years of work? And there was still so little of it? That wasn’t what they discussed though, that day, instead Link had slowly raised the topic of Bazz’s father up. They had talked for over two hours, slowly sharing their mutual hurt and pain. _ _ _ _

____It turns out, the same way Alleyn hadn’t ever beaten Link, Seggin had done the same. They had both struggled, initially, to explain why the taunts even hurt that much. It was just a simple statement really, often their fathers spoke the truth. So why did their words cut so deep? And they had sympathised with each other over just how hard the burden of expectations was. For Bazz, Seggin was constantly disappointed that he hadn’t inherited his non-shockable skill, and that he got injured, and that he wasn’t perfect, the way the Zora’s Captain’s son should be. He was forever annoyed that Bazz had left the Domain to join Hyrule’s Navy, when he should have followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Zora-specific Forces instead. Whilst for Link, it was because his father had an insatiable appetite for rage, a hidden violent streak, and he had channelled that into making Link the best warrior, never praising him for what he had accomplished- only looking forward to what else he should, could and would achieve. That and it was only right, and honour-bound for his son to follow in Alleyn’s footsteps, and serve the Royal Family, the way Alleyn had followed his own father’s for past generations._ _ _ _

____Both of their fathers mocked, humiliated and terrified them into submission- for Bazz, the torture had ended slightly, simply because he had moved away, but Link had, in fact, moved closer to his father, and it had become an all-encompassing, never-ending tirade._ _ _ _

____They realised, after talking through it, that the reason why it hurt was because they both wished, ultimately, to make their father’s happy, and proud. And that seemed a nigh on impossible task- one that would, in all likelihood, never happen. So, they had made a promise, as the sun rose, and the luminous stones dimmed as night ended, that they would, from now on, confide in each other, and second, that they would each focus on their own goals, and would praise each other when they had achieved them. They would no longer set the benchmark at achieving their father’s acceptance, but rather their own._ _ _ _

____For the first time, Link had felt a spark of motivation. What had always been him following his father’s orders, had now become his own. He had realised, that actually, becoming a Knight was what he wanted, he would be able to help people, innocent civilians, using the skills he had honed down. And he would also take a side job in the Castle Kitchens, he had always wanted to take an apprenticeship in culinary arts, and he would do it part time alongside his own training. Bazz had decided to not back down from his decision to join the Navy and had instead taken a side course in medical training- he had a natural flair for healing as a Zora, and he spent time finessing it, and after 6 months of practise became able to access the “healing power” on demand. Link had felt so much lighter after that talk, and he and Bazz had remained inseparable friends since, providing a brotherly support for each other._ _ _ _

____Something in Link’s peripheral vision moved._ _ _ _

____Bazz moved closer, resting a fin on Link’s shoulder. “It did, didn’t it.” He was stating a fact, not asking a question. “It must have with all these rumours swirling around you.” He sighed whilst Link tried to find the words to explain how worried he was. “Remember our promise? I’ll always have your back, Link.”_ _ _ _

____Link cleared his throat, he hadn’t used his voice in 4 hours, he nodded, “Thank you Bazz, for checking up on me.” He sighed, “I do remember the promise…” He looked away, at the weapon rack, his fingers toying with his belt, “It did happen again. And it happened… in front of my mother and the Princess too.” Bazz’s eyes widened, and he sat down on the nearby bench, meant for lifting weights, not disburdening emotions. Link joined him. Bazz remained silent, something which Link appreciated because it gave him time to compose himself. He recounted much of what had happened from his father’s entrance, ending with his fear of the three questions again. Bazz sighed, his head in his fins, before turning around and giving Link a solid hug. It reminded Link of that hug with his mother and Zelda, and he was struck with a strong wave of homesickness._ _ _ _

____“It will all be ok in the end, Bazz. I’m fine see.” Link cleared his throat again, he couldn’t look at his friend anymore, and couldn’t admit that it wasn’t fine, and it probably wouldn’t be fine but there wasn’t much he could do. “Anyway, how are things on your end?”_ _ _ _

____Bazz made a face. “Father is… coming to attend the Annual Meeting tomorrow with the Zora contingent to represent the Zora Armed Forces.” Bazz sighed heavily, looking back out across the Gatehouse. “He will apparently put forward a motion regarding the Navy and how it shouldn’t have Zora warriors in it. He believes Hylians should run their own Armed forces, and if they need _expert_ supervision, some Zora, from the Zora Armed Forces would then partake.” Link felt confused, and it must have shown, because Bazz let out a breathy chuckle. “Honestly it puzzles me too. What difference does it make? Fundamentally we are all part of Hyrule, and we should all contribute and have joint armed forces, that is what would unite all the people together, but…” _ _ _ _

____Link snorted, “Perhaps The Demon values proprietary and honour just as much as my father. It is an affront to him that you aren’t in the Domain with him, rather you are here, working under _the wrong King_.”_ _ _ _

____Bazz had laughed and nodded before realising the implications of the last sentence. He looked horrified, “My allegiance hasn’t changed Link! King Dorephan-”_ _ _ _

____Link burst out laughing, slapping Bazz on his back, “Of course Bazz. I’m just messing with you.”_ _ _ _

____And just like that, they had gone back to the ritual back and forth teasing and the tension deflated._ _ _ _

____Link stood up, “I’m going back home today, I’ve taken a short holiday after the exam. When I come back- we can have that boy’s night out. And I need to head down to Ravio’s Toys to restock my arrows- walk with me?”_ _ _ _

____Bazz nodded and slapped a fin across Link’s back. “Ok, now… Sorry-not-sorry but I have to satiate my curiosity.” He clapped both fins on Link’s shoulders, “Did anything… interesting happen with the Princess?”_ _ _ _

____Link tried to keep a straight face, and not become the same colour as a ripe tomato, as images of holding her so close flashed in his mind’s eye. He distracted himself by putting his hands on Bazz’s shoulders and pushing him back slightly in a light shove. “Nothing happened- she was pretty annoyed at how I more or less ambushed her, which is expected, but then things got better…” Bazz’s face contorted as he went into a mock shock face, “No don’t look at me like that, it wasn’t-”_ _ _ _

____Bazz was pulling at Link’s cheeks, his fin over his chest, “Ah how they grow up so fast.”_ _ _ _

____“BAZZ STOP IT. It was _one_ trip that lasted for _one_ day. It’s not like we’ve proclaimed undying love for each other.”_ _ _ _

____Granté suddenly stepped in line with them, coming out of nowhere, having stealthily crept up on them. “Don’t worry, you soon will. I see you hiding your blushes- _many_ things must have happened on that _one day_ that you aren’t telling us.” He ruffled Link’s hair. “Everyone is jealous of you, you know. No Knight has ever gotten to be with her _alone_ before.” _ _ _ _

____Link wanted to tear his hair out, or run away, or maybe fling himself into a wall and walk through it like a ghost, or any mix of the above. A hairless, flying ghost. That was a good distracting thought. “Do you, answer honestly, see _me_ , seducing the Princess? And anyway, that’s the whole point- she’s a _Princess_! Will you all get off my back!” _ _ _ _

____Granté slowly nodded, “You know Bazz, he does have a point. He’s not the most charismatic.” Bazz simply snorted. Granté slopped an arm across Link and Bazz’s shoulders, “Anyway, boys, I see you be palling up without the gang. In case you were wondering, I didn’t abandon Ravio, no, he just set off to work again… And I notice we are heading in his direction anyway.” He pushed Link and Bazz together to emphasize his point, and they were too surprised to respond. Granté then gracefully moved to the right, he almost seemed to blend into the wall, silently moving next to them._ _ _ _

____Link recovered first and he was glad that at least the conversation had moved on from the Princess. He needed to do something to prevent it going back down that black hole, and he decided to latch onto Granté’s skills. “Can you please, pretty please, _I’ll even pay_ , for you to teach me your stealthy ways. I want to just creep around on people too.” He didn’t mention the real reason was he could then blend in even more with the walls at home, and it would make life a lot easier if he just didn’t come into contact with his father. And maybe he could hide from the taunts that everyone at the Garrison had about his… affiliation with the Princess. _ _ _ _

____Granté chuckled, “Puh, your silent enough as it is, you don’t need to move quietly to add to it. You’ll literally become a wallflower. That being said, I wouldn’t mind seeing that transformation. Maybe we could start a regimen. I could be the mentor, showing the prodigy something for once.” He elbowed Link in the ribs, and Link almost choked on the air he was trying to breathe. He wasn’t going to get away with that, Link had already lifted an arm up and was preparing to give Granté a solid punch, when Bazz tapped his shoulder, and pointed ahead. Alfonso was sitting at the end of the hallway, outside his Guard’s Chamber, his sword across his hands, seemingly in a vigil. Oh no. No, he’d already been shaken enough times today, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again. Link promptly did a 180 and walked back down the corridor, the other two following close behind him._ _ _ _

____Once they were a safe distance away from the huge knight, Granté semi-whispered, “Oh! I actually had to tell you guys- I’ve been summoned to Hateno, I have to be there from Saturday. Lady Impa had called up on all the Sheikah- even those in the midst of training, like me.”_ _ _ _

____Link looked surprised, “Really? Well- I can show you around when you come, because I’m going home this weekend. My house is located slightly to the left of the entrance- its white and it’s across a small wooden bridge. Come visit- I’m sure my mother will be more than happy to cook something for you.”_ _ _ _

____As Granté nodded, Bazz turned around, now walking backwards, facing them, “From the way you phrased it, it sounds like you’ve been permanently called away- what happens then- is your Knight exam delayed?”_ _ _ _

____Granté did a quick flip, and seeing that Alfonso was no longer in sight, went back to a normal voice. “I will definitely take you up on that offer, Linky. I have tasted those honeyed candies and if your mama can make sweets that taste so good, I’ll be delighted to try out her other dishes.” He turned to Bazz, “Yeah- I got that impression too. It struck me as weird though- what does she need us all for? I’ve spoken to The Commander about it and he seems to think I should go, so everything is a bit up in the air at the minute. I hope I get it down before the end of the year though, I wanted to be a Knight before I turned 25.” He flicked his fringe back, “Not all of us are given Goddess-blessed skills and can pass at 16 you know.” He pinched Link’s cheek, “You’ll help, won’t you, prodigy? Hey, I have a deal, if you teach me all your knightly skills, I’ll return the favour and teach you some Sheikah Stealth Secrets.” Granté murmured the last part, looking around, almost fearfully._ _ _ _

____Link and Bazz both stared at him. “What’s wrong?” They asked in unison, then looked at each other and laughed. Granté was not amused, flicking his fringe again, and giving them both the middle finger._ _ _ _

____Link continued, “Of course, I’ll help you. It really isn’t that bad Granté. Just… don’t kidnap the Princess like I did, and you’ll be fine.” Bazz hooted at that one._ _ _ _

____Granté laughed, “You realise, Link, that you’re now infamous. The whole of the Garrison knows what you did and will remember you for it.”_ _ _ _

____They reached the door to the Armoury, and Granté did a two fingered salute at them, before saying his goodbyes as he headed off- “I need to pack, I’ve done literally nothing.” Bazz gave Link another hug as a farewell, which felt weirder this time because Link only reached Bazz’s chest, and it reminded him of giving his mother a hug when he was ten. Bazz had turned around and yelled after Granté offering to help, and the two went towards the Guard’s Chambers where Granté lived._ _ _ _

____Link headed inside and saw Ravio had already set out his arrows for him. “You take your lunch break yet Ravs?”_ _ _ _

____Ravio hefted a massive box off the table and into the corner. Actually, there seemed to be even more boxes that usual inside the Armoury today. “No- I was waiting for you to come in and take your arrows. And then we got a delivery from the Gorons and now I have to sort through everything.” Ravio rubbed his face with his hands._ _ _ _

____“Lots to do?”_ _ _ _

____Ravio sighed. “Always.” He sighed again, sitting down on the edge, “and it doesn’t help that there’s that meeting tomorrow and I have to present-”_ _ _ _

____Link was now very curious about this meeting, and he had to ask Ravio about his… issues with Hilda, so he decided to be spontaneous and interrupt. “Let’s go have lunch, Ravs. I’ll even help afterwards so you aren’t behind.”_ _ _ _

____Ravio looked like Link was one of the Holy Three, descended from the Sky, and had come to personally bless him. A smile grew on his face until it had stretched all the way across, “YES PLEASE. BUT WAIT. I’LL GIVE YOU YOUR ARROWS FIRST!”_ _ _ _

____“You realise, Ravio, I’m only 2 metres away, and you don’t need to scream.”_ _ _ _

____“Oh. Well, it’s good for the soul to vent every now and then.”_ _ _ _

____ _ _

____They had reached the Castle Kitchens not much later and had pretty much sprinted all the way in a frantic race. Despite being shut in the Armoury all day, Ravio had maintained his fitness and form, and he was actually a decent runner, but Link was still feeling pent up frustration over his father’s… behaviour, and he had channelled that into winning. They reached the large mahogany door breathless, laughing and very hungry. When they had recovered enough to open the door, there was a flurry of activity inside. Flour literally flew across the giant kitchen, all sorts of dishes being made, packaged and stored. The kitchen had become an industrial unit, and Link whipped out his apron and strode across the room, reaching the end of the aisle and snatching two meals off the rack. He sauntered back out, and then he and Ravio bolted. They ended up on the Garrison Balcony. It was quieter here, and they had devoured the meal- a meat and rice bowl with cream of mushroom soup._ _ _ _

____Link sat up, having finished much earlier than Ravio, and turned to face his friend who had only just swallowed the last bite. Link simply nodded at him. And Ravio opened his mouth and ripped through all his problems in one breath, “The stupid meeting means I have to stocktake all the weaponry usage over the past year- but that’s not too bad because I have records and the like so it’s just a pain. The main issue is I have to present it- you know how I am with public speaking- you’re the same. I mean it is just The Commander and the King but still those are _two fairly important people_.” Link winced. Yes, he could relate. “SEE and it’s not just that, I don’t know what other budget reassignments they might do, so I’ll need to renegotiate all the contracts we have, and it’s just so long and tedious and I’m just not bothered.” Link nodded again. And then he raised his eyebrows, “And…”_ _ _ _

____Ravio took a deep sigh. “Well… It’s not just the meeting, I guess.” He looked out to the Garrison below. “I just… don’t know how to… I don’t know… progress things? with Hilda. Have you seen her? She’s so majestic, in everything that she does, she beautiful, radiates authority, and power… and me? I’m absolutely terrified of reeling off a set of numbers.” He shivered slightly._ _ _ _

____Link frowned. “But I thought you met her, and got to know her in your last summer holiday- when you went back home to Lorule?” He paused, “I remember you saying… something about how much she cared for the people she governed over as Countess? And she had a special interest in history- which you also share?”_ _ _ _

____Ravio started to squirm. “Yes… I mean, _I_ haven’t forgotten summer… but perhaps _she_ has?” He went red-faced and had started to sweat down his hairline. _ _ _ _

____Link wanted to reassure him, but he was still very confused. “Wait, how do you know that?”_ _ _ _

____Ravio blanched. “She hasn’t, um, talked to me since?”_ _ _ _

____“Did you try to talk to her?”_ _ _ _

____“Um… no?” Ravio had further paled, and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here._ _ _ _

____Well tough. Link wanted to punch Ravio. “Do you, honestly think, a Countess- who spends half her time in a distant county and tries to represent their needs here, would casually walk down to your Armoury? Which is literally located off all the main pathways and in the middle of the Garrison?” Ravio shifted, uncomfortably. Link pressed, “Did you even tell her that you worked in Hyrule’s Castle?!”_ _ _ _

____Ravio nodded- “No Link, I mean, yes, I’m not that cowardly. I did say that I ran my own business.”_ _ _ _

____“Ok- that’s not what I’m asking.” Link took a deep breath, “Did you tell her, that you worked, in the Castle Armoury?” Goodness it was like explaining the order of the alphabet to a child._ _ _ _

____Ravio looked up. “Oh. No?”_ _ _ _

____Link wanted to whack his own head against the wall. Patience, _maintain patience_. “Why?”_ _ _ _

____“Um, well, I, may, or may not, have made it seem like I had… a fully functional business.” Ravio looked like he wanted to bolt, he had half pulled his legs up, and he was clenching and unclenching his fists._ _ _ _

____“So, let me get this straight, you failed to mention that you work in the Castle and despite this, expected her to come and find you in said Castle?” Link took in another deep breath. “Do you realise just how dumb that sounds?”_ _ _ _

____Ravio huffed, “Look, I know it doesn’t sound good. But… I am nothing in front of her. And I don’t have the courage to face her and admit just how much of a nothing I am.”_ _ _ _

____Oh. Well. Exactly 24 hours ago, Link wouldn’t have known what that meant. But now he did. “Ravs, I don’t know her well enough, but if she’s anything like you’ve said then I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. I… can’t tell you that it will all be ok, because it might not be, but it will be better than whatever’s going on right now- if she’s a prick and hates you for your position, then you can at least move on. And frankly, if she doesn’t appreciate you, Ravio, that’s her loss.”_ _ _ _

____Ravio sighed, looking out at the Garrison. Several minutes passed, and they sat in companiable silence, until Ravio shook his head, and run his fingers though his hair._ _ _ _

____“You’re right as always Link. I will give it a shot, after the meeting. She’ll be around for a few days afterwards and I can talk to her then.” And with that he stood up, “Still up for helping me out?”_ _ _ _

____Link nodded and the two of them headed back down to the Armoury, and Link wondered what exactly he’d write in the letter to his father, before realising that it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t have to see his father until Monday and that, was a problem for Monday. For now, he was going to enjoy himself, relax, and celebrate becoming a Knight. And his first successful-ish outing as a Knight. Who was he kidding, he meant his new friendship with the Princess._ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people! I am sorry I ended up taking such a long break, but hey, life got in the way as it tends to do. 
> 
> I’ve since written another fic- feel free to check it out! No pressure though haha. 
> 
> I've had a long think about where exactly I'm taking this story, because I have a lot of ideas, and I knew from the get-go that this would be a long fic. But I didn't realise _how_ long. So, now, I figure it might be best if I split it into several works. At the minute, I've written a good portion of it, but I think it'll just end up being too long as one work only. By the end of today, I will be renaming this story to: A Fated Meeting and marking it as complete. The overall series name will now be For You. 
> 
> I can't promise when the next update will be, I've got a lot of planning, and writing to do before I start the next work but I will be back! Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! This is my first ever fanfiction, and I'd appreciate any feedback.


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